BY THE WAYSIDE. 
04 
by the wayside 
Published on the fifteenth of each month. 
The official organ of the Wisconsin and Illinois Audu¬ 
bon Societies. 
Twenty-five cents per year. Single copies, three cents- 
Ml communications should be sent to Mrs. G. W- 
Peckham, 646 Marshall St., Milwaukee, Wis. 
The editor of the Wayside will send pack¬ 
ages of Audubon leaflets to persons who care 
sufficiently for spreading an interest m bird 
protection, to pay postal or express charges. 
Bird-Lore for December publishes the first 
plates of a series designed to illustrate the 
warblers of North America in color, from 
drawings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes and Bruce 
Horsfall. 
At the annual conference of Audubon So¬ 
cieties, in November, it was reported that steps 
have been taken to secure protection for birds 
in the Philippines and other American islands 
in the Pacific. 
trees, to piazza railings, or even to the win¬ 
dowsills. If in addition we can spare a lump 
of suet or the trimmings from the meat, they 
may be tied upon the trunks and branches of 
trees for the benefit of woodpeckers, chickadees, 
nuthatches, and other birds which might not 
come for the seeds. Among my bird pension¬ 
ers last winter were juncos, tree sparrows, 
song sparrows, and chickadees, all of which 
came on the piazza-; nuthatches and bluejays, 
which patronized the suet tied to an old tiee 
stump, and goldfinches, which condescended to 
pick up the seeds which we scattered on the 
ground under the windows. 
P»ut the birds are not by any means the 
only creatures which need help at this sea¬ 
son; many of the four-footed animals find 
food dreadfully scarce, and we can often help 
them with Tittle trouble to ourselves. Ears 
of corn, bundles of wheat, or other grain, also 
in the ear. tied in the trees, will make a fine 
feast for the squirrels, and the bundles of 
wheat tied to the trunks of trees in the woods 
just above the snow will he a, boon to the 
grouse, not to mention the wood mice. The 
idea of voluntarily feeding mice will roo doubt 
seem very funny to many people, but I am 
very fond of wood mice. All through the year 
they give me pleasure in my walks, and the 
least I can do to repay them is to give them a 
square meal now and then at a season when 
square meals are apt to be scarce with them. 
So. when I am passing their way, I .just call 
and leave a handful of nuts, a slice of bread, 
or an apple or two, and I have reason to 
think that sometimes they enjoy their Thanks¬ 
givings and Christmases, rather more than if 
I had left them to forage for their dinners in 
the cold. And the muskrats, too, earn all 
they uet in the way of food when the snow is 
deep and the thermometer low. A muskrat 
would go a mile for an apple if he knew where 
to go for it, and if you are out for a walk it 
is not- much of a task to carry down a few 
apples in your pocket. I only mention the ap¬ 
ples because he is so partial to them, but 1 
assure you he will not turn up his nose at tur¬ 
nips. parsnips, carrots, beets, or roots of any 
kind at this time of year. 
Of course it is little that any of us car 
do towards feeding the needy among cur wild 
neighbors, hut if each one of those of us who 
really love them will take a little: trouble every 
winter, we shall not only save many lives which 
would otherwise he lost to us, hut we shall get 
better understanding of the creatures whose 
biographies are so closely interwoven with our 
( \ Vn .—Ernest Harold Baynes, in The Eveniny 
Host. 
The Notional Nightingale. 
King Hubert, he went to the forest in state. 
In glitter and gold, on a sun-shiny day, 
And commanded his train in the shadow to 
wait, 
While a herald proclaimed in the following' 
way: 
-His Imperial Majesty, Hubert the Second, 
Since the nightingale’s voice is quite musical 
reckoned, 
Is graciously pleased, as the day seems too 
long, 
To command that the nightingale sing him 
a song!” 
The court all stood waiting for what might be¬ 
fall; 
But somehow, no nightingale answered the 
call. 
—From St. Nicholas. 
