58 
BY THE WAYSIDE. 
grubs and eggs under the bark. It also makes 
a good carpenter's tool, and one that is much 
needed; for when the chickadee cannot find an 
old woodpecker’s hole to rent, he has to go to 
work to tunnel out a hole for himself .—From 
Mrs. Bailey's Birds of Village and Field. 
Letters about the chickadee should be mailed 
by January 1. 
Prizes and Badges* 
The honor badges for November are awarded 
to Charlie Koehler, Tinley Park, Ill., and 
Lauretta Simon, Boardman, Wis. The prize 
for the best study of October birds, a year’s 
subscription to Bird-Lore, goes to Leo Egel- 
berg, 703 State street. La Crosse. This prize 
is given with every issue of The Wayside for 
the best study of birds during the preceding 
month, and is offered to teachers and children. 
Good letters have been received from Rosco 
Van Meter, John Davis, Harry Sawin, Clar¬ 
ence Sutton, Bert Williams, W. N. Williams, 
James Pratt, Erwin Radi off, Elsie Simon, Leo¬ 
nard Germain, Mamie Germain, and Francis 
Tobin. 
Secretary’s Letter. 
My Dear Children: 
Here we are, all back at work again. The 
Wayside is waiting to hear from you all and 
wondering what you have been doing during 
this migration season. 
All through Chicago now we can hear the 
chickadees—they are here in great numbers, 
hopping about the branches doing all their 
little acrobatic feats of hanging by their heels 
and examining all the little crevices in the 
bark of the trees. They always seem to go 
about in little flocks and usually when one is 
seen there are others to be found in the vi¬ 
cinity. 
I hope we are all going to put out some 
food and drinking water for the little birds 
this winter. If anyone will try it they will 
not be sorry, for when the ground is all cov¬ 
ered with snow and everything is frozen up 
our little winter friends sometimes have a 
hard time to find anything to eat and will be 
very grateful to any little boy or girl who 
will help them out. 
Helen R. Scudder. 
Wisconsin Prize Letter. 
Boardman, Wis. 
Dear Wayside: We never see crows by 
the house, we always see them in fields where 
there is corn. Chows like corn. The crows 
are found in all parts of Wisconsin. 
During the winter the crows feed together 
in rather small flocks, flying from one field to 
another in search of food. The crows start 
to build their nest the last of March and the 
first of April. The crow’s nest is made of 
roots, fibres, moss, shreds of bark, hair, feath¬ 
ers, twine, and lined with dead grass. 
The usual number of eggs is four or five and 
they are hatched in about fourteen days. 
The young crows grow rapidly and they are 
eaters; they are well grown by the end of 
June. During the year a crow kills a great 
many mice, moles, gophers, young rabbits, and 
cray-fish, with a small per cent, of beneficial 
animals, as frogs, and lizards. He also eats 
a great many injurious insects and may often 
be seen walking soberly over a freshly-plowed 
field picking out cut worms and larvae. During 
the summer he consumes great quantities of 
grasshoppers, beetles, cut worms, weevils, tent 
caterpillars, and canker worms. Its chief 
damage is to the corn. It can generally be 
overcome by various devices, and his hen-house 
depredations, which are seldom, are not apt to 
continue when there is a king-bird on the prem¬ 
ises. The crow is one of the most interesting 
birds that Ave have. The ci’oavs are all black. 
The farmers do not like croAA^s because they eat 
the corn up; they shoot croAVS whenever they 
can. 
Lauretta Simon, age 9 years. 
Prize Paper.—Birds in October* 
Dear Wayside: On the second of October 
I noticed a small flock of chickadees feeding on 
the sunflower seeds in the yard. They would 
peck a seed from the pod, and placing it in a 
crevice in the bark of a neighboring tree, split 
open the husks and eat the insides. On the 
fourth, Avhile taking a AA T alk in Pettibone Park. 
I found a little green heron feeding in a ditch 
beside the road. It fleAV into a low tree and 
Avatched me with upstretclied neck and tAvitch- 
ing tail. Numerous flocks of ducks flew over¬ 
head, but at quite an elevation. White- throat¬ 
ed sparrows and myrtle A\ T arblers Avere numer¬ 
ous, as Avere also graekles and red-winged 
