32 
BY THE WAY HIDE 
rule, we- all love the birds. The birds are the 
farmers’ best friends. Sometimes we think 
they are a nuisance, but how we would miss 
them if their singing were completely silenced. 
We would soon wish their return. 
We know that some birds appear to be very 
destructive, and among these are the crow and 
hawk. The hawk is much dreaded because it 
sometimes takes young chickens. And the 
crows have few friends because they pull the 
corn. But we know also that they make up 
by destroying insects of the field. 
It may be set down as a safe rule that 
most of our birds do more good than harm and 
our aim should be to encourage them and not 
to destroy them. It surely would be a large 
number if we were to estimate how many in¬ 
sects a single bird would destroy each year. 
If birds are encouraged to build around the 
farm, they will do their share in destroying 
noxious insects. 
With' all good wishes for you all, 
Christina S. Petersen, Sec’y. 
Hammond, Wis., June 6, 1904. 
Dear Wayside: 
One afternoon my brother and I went out 
doors to look for the different kinds of birds. 
We saw five robins, thirteen blue birds, twen¬ 
ty blackbirds, six crows and a downy wood¬ 
pecker. One day last week when I went down 
to the cemetery, I nearly stepped on a brown 
thrush’s nest. The nest was on the ground 
between two graves. The old bird was sitting 
on the nest and when I came up close she 
flew to a tree near by. There were four eggs in 
the nest. I went away because the old birds 
was scolding me. I didn’t tell any one about 
the nest. I was afraid some one would rob 
the nest. Decoration day I went down to the 
cemetery and the nest was empty. 
Iva McCullough. 
Appleton, Wis. 
Dear Wayside: 
Last July I was at my uncle’s farm, and 
growing close to the house was a little fir tree. 
A tree sparrow had built its nest in it and 
one morning I went to look at it and I saw 
that it was not there. We thought the cat 
must have got it for when I looked on the 
ground the shells of the eggs and the nest 
were lying there. I took up the nest; we 
thought the cat had not got the mother bird 
so we put it in a bigger tree, but she did not 
come back. 
Aged 9. Elfrieda Hampel. 
About three years ago we put out a bird- 
house, and last year we put out two more and 
every year we have many bluebirds. My sis¬ 
ter and I watch all the birds we see. This year 
the bluebirds had to fight the sparrows to get 
the box. About two weeks ago the bluebirds 
kept flying against our neighbor’s window. 
Now what do you think it wanted there, did 
it see itself or something in the window ? 
Ithink the bluebird is so pretty, he is all blue 
with only a little brown on his breast. 
One winter the bluebird stayed here all win¬ 
ter. Adolph K. Wuerker. 
Aged 8. Alton, Ill. 
Necedah, Juneau Co., Wis., March 30, 1904. 
Dear Wayside: 
I saw a very beautiful bird, it has a very 
pretty head. It has a blue head and a very 
black back and it flvs around saying “Bob- 
white, Bob-white.” When I was coming to 
school three of these birds were in a tree and 
they flew away saying “Bob-white, Bob- 
white.” 
Yesterday I saw a blue bird and it flew and 
lit on our bird house. 
Agatha Desbouillons. 
O 
BUILD IN A TAM-O-SHANTER. 
Lately, Miss Claudine Schlaich cleaned a 
white Tam-o-Shanter and hung it on a pole 
under a clothes line to get out the smell of 
gasoline. The gasoline smell did not seem to 
be at all objectionable to a pair of wrens 
who began building in it and by the time Miss 
Claudine wished to take it in it was filled 
with twigs, and the wrens as merry as such 
little fellows can be, were singing happily to 
think that they had found such a fine house. 
The wrens were not disturbed, and are en¬ 
joying the whitest home in which th'ey ever 
lived.—Mrs. O. Gaffron, in Plymouth Review. 
