96 
BY THE WAYSIDE. 
SCHOOL BRANCH DEPARTMENT. 
Every Wisconsin School Branch is required to subscribe for at least one copy of BY THE WAYSIDE 
Letters for this department should be written on only 
one side of the page, should give the name, age and ad¬ 
dress of the writer, and should be mailed by the first of 
the mouth, Illinois Children sending to Mrs. Wm. M. 
Scudder, 165 Buena Ave., Chicago, 111., and Wisconsin 
children to Miss Ruth Marshall, Appleton, Wisconsin. 
An honor badge will be awarded for each state 
every month, preference being given to letters about the 
bird for the month (which is always on this page), and 
to original observations. Any child who wins the honor 
badge twice will receive a bird book as a prize. 
The wren button, which is the badge of the Audubon 
Society, costs one cent, and may be bought from Mrs. 
Scudder or Miss Marshall. 
Any Wisconsin School Branch may, without expense, 
have the use of the Merrill Library of bird books, by 
applying to Miss Bossert, Librarian, 719 I ranklin St., 
Milwaukee. 
A set ol colored bird slides with a type-written lecture 
may be rented from Prof.W. S. Marshall, 114 E. Gorham 
St., Madison, Wis. 
Illinois Schools may use, without expense, a library 
or a lecture with lantern slides, by applying to Mrs. 
Ruthven Deane, 504 N. State St., Chicago. 
Goldfinch ; Yellow=bird; Thistle=bird; 
Wild Canary. 
Adult wale, bright yellow; cap, wings, and tail black, 
marked with white. Adult female , brownish, tinged witn 
yellow; without black cap; wings and tail blackish. 
Adult male in winter, similar to female. Length, about 
5 inches. 
The Goldfinches are late builders, and when 
other birds are going about silently, preoccu¬ 
pied with nesting cares, it is a peculiar pleas¬ 
ure to hear the light-hearted per-chic-o-ree of a 
band of wandering yellow-birds as they come 
undulating through the sky. Few songs have 
the sweetness of their songs, or can awaken the 
same response in our hearts. For, like the 
Chickadee, the Goldfinch is one of the gentle, 
trustful birds that hold a place of their own 
in our affections. 
When going about in wandering bands they 
brighten our days, and when nest-building 
claim still more our sympathetic attention. 
They are on the lookout for soft lining ma¬ 
terials, and will frankly accept any bits of 
colored worsted or string that we may offer, 
repaying us by letting us enjoy their sweet 
family life. When the blue eggs are laid upon 
their thistle-down bed in the compact round 
nest in the apple tree, the father bird watches 
us anxiously until he knows that he can trust 
us near his mate, but when once sure of our 
good faith, will feed her in our presence. How 
tenderly he calls out as he comes to her! The 
quality of his note has changed entirely since |i 
spring. Instead of the per-chic-a-ree that told j; 
only of his delight in his free life in the air, 
his call is now a rich, tender dear, dear, deark , 
and a gentle home-like dear, dear, dear. Mrs. j 
Mabel Osgood Wright gives us a hint worth 
taking in the matter of attracting the gold- j 
finches. She says: “If you wish them to live 
with you and honor your trees with their nests, j 
plant sunflowers in your garden, zinnias, and 
coreopsis; leave a bit of wild grass somewhere 
about with its mass of composite. Coax the 
wild clematis everywhere that it can gain a 
footing; and in winter, when these joyous 
birds, gathered in flocks, are roving, hard- 
pressed for food, scatter some sweepings of 
bird seed about their haunts, repaying in this 
their silent season their summer melody.” 
When nesting time is over, the dainty birds 
again gather in bands, the males changing their 
canary-colored coats for the safer but dingy 
garb of their mates, and so go about through 
fall and winter doing public service by eating 
the seeds of the brown weeds that stand above 
the snow. In one place a flock of a thousand 
has been seen feeding on the seeds of ragweed, 
effectually limiting its spread there for another 
year. As everyone knows the “thistle birds ’ 
are especially fond of thistle seeds. They also 
eat the seeds of the common “beggary-tick” 
which is so troublesome in bottom lands, and 
the larvae of the destructive wheat midge. In 
summer the goldfinches feed their young mainly 
on insects, such as beetles, plant-lice, larva, 
flies, and small grasshoppers .—From Mrs. 
Bailey's Birds of Village and Field. 
Letters about the goldfinch should be mailed 
to Miss Ruth Marshall, Appleton, by June 1st. 
Prizes and Badges. 
Gerty Peterson of Yorkville, Wis., and Eddie 
Bauer of Tinley Park, Ill., win the honor 
badges for April. 
