74 
BY THE WAYSIDE. 
about. One of my songs is chick-a-dee-dee-dee, 
so they call me chickadee. They say that I am 
very quick. That is one way they tell me from 
the sparrows. 
Not long ago while I was Hitting about in 
a crab-apple tree, I found an old catbird’s nest. 
It was full of snow. I hopped in and you 
ought to see the snow fly! In a bush near by 
is a little chipping sparrow’s nest. It is made 
of little roots and hair from the horse’s tail. 
I visit these nests once in a while, but they 
seem very funny to me, for mine is a little hole 
and is lined with soft down and feathers. 
In winter I fly all over to find something to 
eat. I like to nibble at the buds of trees, and 
sometimes my little boy and girl friends put 
some crumbs or suet out for me. 1'nis is very 
kind of them, for when the snow is heavy it is 
very hard for me to find food. 
I heard a friend of mine say the other day 
that far away in Norway people are especially 
good to all birds on a day which they call 
Yule-peace, but which the people here call 
Christmas. They save sheaves of wheat and 
I have 
low and the other is greenish brown, 
a great deal of fun with them. 
At the back of our house we have a kind of 
“bird table,” as we call it. On it we keep com 
all the time and sometimes hemp and sunflower 
seeds. The bluejays carry off the sunflower 
seeds by the mouthful. I think bluejays are 
great fun. 
Sometimes when we go to feed the chickadees, 
when we come back in the house the door is not 
shut before the “chicks,” as I call them, are at 
the food. Muriel Lampert, age 11. 
Prize Paper—Birds in December. 
Dear Wayside: —On the second of December, 
while walking on the Golf Grounds, I saw a 
flock of about twenty pine grosbeaks. They 
looked very pretty, eating the blue berries of 
the cedar trees. On the sixth, while taking a 
walk in Pettibone Park, numerous flocks of 
chickadees greeted us with their cheering calls. 
Occasionally we would see some white-breasted 
Christmas. They save sheaves of wneat ana nuthatc hes' running up and down the tree 
other good things which they hang out on Yule * trunks> On the twelfth of the month we saw 
peace for the birds. 
a small flock of red-winged blackbirds in the 
I hear the boys and girls here talk a great marshe3 near Lake Park . In the Golf Grounds 
deal about Christmas nowadays. Yes, they have . ^ gaw a sing , e robill _ sbowing not the least 
merry times then, and I am going to kee P .'fi' si „ n o{ being coId We a]so saw a large flock 
watch, for sometimes they throw out pop corn, ^ eyening grosbeaks feeding on the berries of 
nuts and other good things for me to eat. 
John Loos, age 11 
Illinois Prize Letter. 
Dear Wayside: — I like the chickadee best 
of all the birds I know, the robin perhaps be¬ 
ing an exception. 
I have been sick this fall and near a window 
in my bedroom, mamma had some suet tied 
onto a tree. Chickadees came almost con¬ 
stantly. But the English sparrows came more 
than constantly, and so the suet went a great 
deal faster than if the chickadees only had 
made their dainty meals off of it. 
When I was better mamma put some nuts, 
hemp and sunflower seeds on a chest on our 
south veranda. We keep the chickadees well 
supplied and we are ten times repaid by their 
cheery presence. The English sparrows are 
afraid to come on the chest, of which T am a 
little glad. . 
I have two canaries of my own. Une is yel¬ 
| the cedar trees. These birds are large and 
easily identified on account of their striking 
plumage. Other birds seen several times dur¬ 
ing the month were the tree sparrows, juncos, 
hairy and downy woodpeckers, bluejays and 
quail. Isidor Rehfuss, age 15. 
R. D., No. 2, Oshkosh, Wis. 
Dear Wayside:— One morning on my way to 
school I saw some red-headed woodpeckers. 
The head, neck and forebreast are crimson; 
its back, wings and tail are glossy black, and 
the under part of its breast is white. 
It lives chiefly in the woods, where they 
search for their food in the bark of trees. They 
feed on insects and grubs. 
Its bill is long and sharp, and when digging 
for some food it makes a thrumming noise. 
It lays its eggs in the hollow of a tree. The 
eomrs are white, and from four to six in num- 
Selma H. Widmer, age 13. 
Member of the Mayflower Audubon Society. 
her 
