BY THE WAY BIDE 
29 
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 Miss Ruth Marshall, 
Appleton, Wisconsin. An honor badge will be a- 
warded for each state every month, prelerence being 
given to letters about the bird study for the month 
(which is always on this page), and to original ob¬ 
servations. Any child who wins the honor badge 
twice will receive By The Wayside one year as a 
prize. 
The wren button, which is the bad,ge of the Audu¬ 
bon Society, costs two cents, 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 Franklin 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 library 
or a lecture with lantern slides, by applying to Mrs. 
Ruthven Deane, 504 N. State St , Chicago. 
REDWINGED BLACKBIRD. 
The Redwings are among the most attrac¬ 
tive members of the Blackbird family, in their 
black soldier coats with epaulets of red. Other 
birds belonging to this family are the Ori¬ 
oles, Bobolinks and Cowbirds. While a few 
straggling Redwings are sometimes seen in 
the spring in the city parks, whole flocks of 
them may be found in the low meadows and 
wild marshes. They get into th’e plowed 
ground, too, and follow the farmer as he 
plants his grain. Many farmers dislike them 
for this, though the birds really do much more 
good than harm, as they go about the field 
feeding on grubs and insects. 
I There are other things for the parents to 
do aside from providing food and cleaning 
house. Sometimes the sun shines hot on the 
I nest. Tender nestlings cannot endure this, as 
the parents well know, hence one of them, 
[ usually the mother, broods over them during 
that part of the day when the sun burns over 
the nest. 
Snakes and hawks are their worst enemies. 
Their nests being low, it easy for these foes 
to invade their homes. 
Flying in larger flocks than any other birds, 
the voices of Blackbirds are familiar to all of 
|j us—in the springtime especially, and again in 
the autumn as they gather together for their 
annual pilgrimage to the south. In the nest¬ 
ing season they are usually seen only in pairs. 
They come in such' large flocks, that, as they 
pass over us, we seem to be under a heavy 
cloud, and their voices, as they come to us out 
of the distance, are sweet and beautiful. Each 
bird sings but a simple “con-quer-ee,” but when 
every one adds his mite to the general chorus, 
the effect is indescribably fine, at least to one 
fond of the music of the air. Circling about 
several times and descending with a whirl, 
great flocks of them alight among the low 
bushes in our meadows and among the reeds 
in our marshes at sundown in late August or 
early September. The sound made by the 
wings of this mighty mass of bird life, as it 
rises in beginning its flight, is like thunder. 
As the great black cloud fades away in the 
distance, we feel that for months we shall see 
them no more. From Our Birds mid Their 
Nestlings, Walker. 
Letters about the Redwinged Blackbird 
should be sent to the secretaries before No¬ 
vember 10. 
PRIZES AND BADGES. 
Was the Bob-White too hard a subject fox 
the Wayside boys and girls to write about this 
month, or were they too busy starting in with 
the new school year? No Bob-White letters 
came. The Wisconsin badge for the month is 
sent to Mae McIntyre and the Illinois prize 
goes to Elmer Ryan. Their letters appear 
first. 
Chicago, Sept. 20, 1904. 
Dear Wayside: 
I am nine years old, in fifth grade. This 
summer some robins built in a big tree in our 
back yard. I had just got through putting on 
water on the flowers and grass and other 
things. This was about eleven o’clock in the 
morning. They set to work getting mud in 
the grass. The female would get little pieces 
of twigs, etc., and the male got mud. When 
the female got back with her load she waited 
til the male got back and she took mud and 
smeared it around. 
Yours truly, 
Elmer Ryan. 
