Illinois Prize Letter. 
\ 
BY THE WAYSIDE. 
telling two people what our law is, asking them 
to pass the information on to others in the 
same way. Thus you may start an endless 
chain without any complications of ten-eent 
pieces or postage stamps, an endless chain of 
good will, reaching into out-of-the-way corners 
of the state. Here are the most important 
parts of the law: 
Section 1. No person shall within the state 
of Wisconsin, kill or catch or have in his or her 
possession, living or dead, any wild bird other 
than a game bird, nor shall purchase, offer, or 
expose for sale any such wild bird after it has 
been killed or caught. No part of the plumage, 
skin, or body of any bird protected by this sec¬ 
tion, shall be sold or had in possession for sale. 
For the purpose of this act the following 
only shall be considered game birds: the sev¬ 
eral species of wild geese, ducks, woodcock, 
snipe, plover, grouse, prairie chickens, pheas¬ 
ant, partridge and quail, designated by name 
and protected by the game laws of this state. 
Sec. 2. No person shall, within the state of 
Wisconsin, take or needlessly destroy the nest 
or the eggs of any wild bird, nor shall have 
such nest or eggs in his or her possession. 
Section 3. Any person who violates any of 
the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a 
misdemeanor and shall be liable to a fine of 
five dollars for each bird, living or dead, or 
part of bird or nest and eggs possessed, in vio¬ 
lation of this act, or imprisonment for ten days 
or both at the discretion of the court. 
Elizabeth G. Peckham. 
Wisconsin Prize Letter* 
Dear Wayside: —This is my first letter I 
am writing to you, and is about a humming¬ 
bird. I was walking in our garden when I 
heard a humming noise. I looked around and 
saw a beautiful bird about four inches long, 
with a long bill and short tail. It had a 
red-throat and a greenish back. With its 
long bill it was trying to get an insect or 
the sweet honey in the flower. It stayed 
there about two minutes and as it flew away 
the humming sound began again. I knew now 
that the noise came from the wings. It must 
have been a ruby-throated humming-bird. 1 
think birds and animals are just as good as 
people, as they are under one God. 
Erwin Radi.off, age 12 years. 
Milwaukee. 
Dear Wayside: —One of the common birds 
in this locality is the meadow lark. It is 
a pretty bird with a yellow breast and brown 
wings. 
One day my brother and I were going through 
a meadow and we found a little meadow lark 
and we picked it up. The old ones flew 
around us and almost hit us in the face, and 
when we laid it down they went and hovered 
over it. 
There were some sparrows around our house 
and when summer came I put up a pigeon-box. 
The sparrows drove the pigeons out and built 
a nest in it themselves. 
Fred. Mans, age 11 years. 
Upper Alton. 
Dear Wayside: —Last winter when we lived 
over on the marsh I caught six quails. They 
were nearly starved to death and were so 
weak they couldn’t fly or even run. I took 
them home and put them in a box and fed 
them. Three were so weak that they died. 
Two of those which were left picked the third 
to death. The other two lived and became so 
tame that they would come up to our feet and 
eat crumbs. I kept them in a box and fed 
them crumbs and water and sand and let them 
out every day. When we moved over here on 
our own farm this spring we brought them 
altons: and let them loose and they are here 
now. 
Necedah. Ray Burns. 
Dear Wayside: —The crow is a large black 
bird. They come in the spring and stay 
nearly all the year. They live in the fields and 
woods. The crow’s nest is made of sticks and 
lined with dead grass, root fibres, moss and 
twine. The crow lays four or five eggs. The 
crow steals corn from the farmer but he does 
a. great deal of good, too, eating gophers, young 
rabbits and a few frogs and lizards. He also 
eats insects, cut worms, grasshoppers, beetles 
and caterpillars. Altogether the crow is a very 
interesting bird and one that is worth study¬ 
ing. 
Leonard Germain, age IT years. 
Burkhardt. 
