I 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
21 
SCHOOL BRANCH DEPARTMENT, 
Every 'Wisconsin School Branch is required to subscribe for at least one of BY THE WAYSIDE 
Letters for this department should be written on 
only one side of the page, should give the name, age 
and address of writer, and should be mailed by the 
first of the month, Illinois Children sending to Mrs. 
Wm. M. Scudder, 165 Buena Ave., Chicago, Ill., and 
Wisconsin Children to MISSRUTH MARSHALL, 
Appleton, Wisconsin. An honor badge will be a- 
warded for each state every month, preference being 
given to letters about the birds study for the month 
(which is always on this page), and to original ob¬ 
servations. Any child who wins the honor badge 
twice will reeeivt By The Wayside one year as a 
prize. 
The wren button, which is the bad,ge of the Audu¬ 
bon Society, costs two cent, and may be bought from 
Mrs. Scudder or Miss Marshall. 
Any Wisconsin School Branch may, without ex¬ 
pense, have the use of the Gordon and Merrill Lib¬ 
raries of bird books, by applying to Miss Bossert, 
Librarian, 719 Fran Klin St., Milwaukee. 
A set of colored bird slides with a type-written lec¬ 
ture may be rented from Prof. W. S. Marshall, 114 
E Gorham St., Madison, Wis. 
Illinois Schools may use, without expense, a librar 3 r 
or a lecture with lantern slides, by applying to Mrs. 
Ruthven Deane. 504 N. State St , Chicago. 
BOB WHITE, QUAIL. 
Length ten inches. Upper parts mixed reddish- 
brown, buff, graj r and black, with a white line over 
the eye and a row of buff streaks on the inside wing 
feathers. Upper parts white, black and chestnut, the 
the breast quite black and throat pure white in the 
male, but buft in the female and other markings 
much mixed up. From Citizen Bird, Wright and Cowes. 
During the nesting season Bob-whites are 
distributed in pairs through clearings and cul¬ 
tivated fields. The members of a brood con¬ 
stitute a bevy or covey. In the fall they fre- 
quent grain fields, but as winter approaches 
draw in toward thickets and wooded bottom¬ 
lands, sometimes passing the coldest weather 
in boggy alder swamps. They roost on the 
ground, with heads pointing outward; a bunch 
of closely huddled forms—a living bomb whose 
explosion is scarcely less startling than that 
of a dynamite manufacture. Like most grass- 
inhabiting birds whose colors harmonize with 
their surroundings, Bob-whites rely on this 
protective resemblance to escape detection, 
and take wing only as a last resort. The name 
“Bob-white” originated in the spring call of 
male. Mounting a fence or ascending to the 
lower branches of a tree, he whistles the two 
clear musical, ringing notes. After the breed¬ 
ing season, when the birds are in bevies, their 
notes are changed to what sportsmen call 
“scatter notes.” Not long after a bevy has 
been flushed and perhaps widely scattered, 
the members of the disunited family may 
be heard signaling to one another in sweet 
minor calls of two or three notes. When ex¬ 
cited they also utter low, twittering notes.— 
From Handbook of Birds, Chapman. 
1 he state fish and game laws provide that 
any person who shall take, catch, kill or pur¬ 
sue the quail before September 1, 1905, shall 
be punished by a fine of not less than $25 nor 
more than $50, or by imprisonment in the 
county jail not less than 30 days nor more than 
60 days. 
Letters about the Bob-white should be sent 
to the secretary before October 10. 
I he prize announced in the May Wayside for 
«/ «/ 
the best letter on bird observation during’ the 
summer, is sent to illiam Schneider of La 
Crosse. It is a copy of “Bird Life Stories,” 
compiled by Prof. C. W. Weed. The Illinois 
letters were not received in time for publica¬ 
tion. _ 
The Illinois prize letter for June was de¬ 
layed in the mail. It is printed first in this 
issue. 
Dear Wayside. 
I saw a song sparrow. The first song spar¬ 
row I saw on March the 17th, 1904. I was go- 
ing to school on the road as he was sitting in 
© 
a bush he was cold. One Monday morning I 
was walking along the road ,a song sparrow 
flew up. I ran and looked. I saw a little nest 
and I haven’t looked since. I hope the nest is 
not destroyed. I told my teacher about it. 
The nest is in front of the school. I hope she 
hatched well. By my home in a hollow limb 
a song sparrow is building in it. The tree is 
in our garden they have built in it. I looked in 
the nest and the father bird is tame and jumps 
around the tree. I went away from the tree 
1 did not look again. I told my mother about 
it. 
Charlie Koehler. 
Tinley Park. 
Austin, June 14, 1904. 
Dear Wayside. 
The other day as I was coming home from 
school I heard a mother robin chirping with 
all her might, I couldn’t think what she was 
chirping for, but as I entered the door I saw 
a baby robin upon the fence. She could not 
chirp or fly So I called to my brother, he 
thought perhaps water would help her so we 
put some in front of her and the mother flew 
