82 
LY THE WAYSIDE. 
Two or three at a time would hang on him 
and pull at him as hard as they could, but all 
their efforts only seemed to fasten him more 
securely to the tree. Finally the gentleman 
went to the poor little fellow’s rescue and suc¬ 
ceeded in freeing him. 
He was nearly exhausted but managed to 
fly away, very much Heightened but happy. 
Helen R. Scudder. 
Illinois Prize Letter. 
Dear Wayside.—I saw a brown creeper 
creeping up an apple tree; he ran up the tree 
then flew away. 
This morning I saw about 50 snow birds 
flying in the hedge; they would fly in front of 
us. Joe Rich, age 9. 
Wisconsin Prize Letter. 
The brown creeper is often found near a 
company of chickadees and nuthatches. His rus¬ 
ty brown color renders him very inconspicuous 
against the tree trunks, and he is easily over¬ 
looked unless one happens to hear his high 
squeaky call. He climbs the boles in spirals 
and zig-zag lines, and on reaching the top 
drops down to the base of the next tree, and 
again begins climbing. 
Last fall I saw a creeper in one of the city 
parks, with one of its legs so shriveled that it 
was useless. It was painfully climbing a tree 
trunk and with the help of its tail succeeded in 
ascending very slowly. Had it been any other 
bird than a creeper the sight would not have 
been so sad; but as this little bird has no 
means of securing food, except by the use of its 
feet its condition was very pitiful. 
L. J. Egelberg, age 15. 
703 State Stret, La Crosse, Wis. 
Prize Paper==Birds in January. 
This year we have seen more rare winter 
visitors than for several years past. I suppose 
tins is because of the scarcity of food, especially 
the berries of the “Hackberry tree.” 
On New Year’s day, when we went out, we 
saw a pine grosbeak. He was a young male. 
These birds are readily identified by their 
great size and bright plumage. They attract 
great attention wherever they are seen. 
On the sixteenth we saw a large flock of 
goldfinches in their winter plumage. When we 
returned, we saw a flock of over one hundred 
and fifty snow buntings (snow flakes). These] 
birds are very irregular visitors in this lo-i 
cality. They were the first we had ever seer. I 
and therefore we observed them with great in ' 
trest. 
Several flocks of evening grosbeaks were 
seen during the month. Other birds occasion 
ally seen were the chickadee, brown creeper 
white-breasted nuthatch, bluejay, hairy anc 
downy woodpeckers, and the bobwhite. 
William Schneider, age 15. 
Rogers Park, Chicago. 
Dear Wayside. —I made a tray 8 inches by 
4 by 1, and put it on the windowsill. The 
sparrows are afraid to come close to the win 
dow where the food*is, but the chickadees an 
not. The sparrows will go away if we tap on 
the window. The chickadees don’t know win 
the sparrows fly away. 
In the tray we put sunflower seed, hemii 
seed, suet and grated carrot every day. Nutj 
hatches and downy woodpeckers come too. 
Alfred Redfield, age 6 years. 
Upper Alton, III. 
Dear Wayside. —The most common son^ 
birds of our locality are the wren, robin, blue 
bird, bluejay, snow bird and red bird. 
Their food consists of grain and insects 
Their great value to man is eating up the bug 
and worms that destroy the corn and othej 
grain. Once I was going along the road and 
saw a snake that was charming a bird. When 
I came up the snake looked at me and th-jj 
bird flew away. I killed the snake. Egg col 
lectors and sportsmen kill and rob birds’ nest 
and so destroy lots of our little song birds. 
The millinery people kill millions of littl 
birds every year to put on hats too. 
Edgar Leighty, age 12. 
Rogers Park, Chicago, III., Jan. 20. 1904. 
Dear Wayside. —One evening we found ; 
rose-breasted grosbeak that had fallen fron 
its nest but we could not find the nest. W 
took it home and thought it would be able t4 
fly in a day 6r two. We did not know whaj 
to feed it but hard boiled yolk of egg ami 
potatoes. We were told grosbeaks ate pota:’ 
bugs, so we fed it potato bugs and meal worm?! 
