BY THE WAYSIDE. 
61 
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 address ofthe writer, and should be mailed by the 
first of the month; Illinois Children sending to Miss 
Ethel E. Hooper, 541 N. State St., Chicago, Ill., 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 study for the month (which is 
always on this page), and to original observations. 
Any child who wit. s the honor badge twice will re¬ 
ceive By The Wayside one year as a prize. 
The wren button, which is the badge of the Audu¬ 
bon Society, costs two cents, and mav be bought 
from Miss Hooper 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 Edna 
Edwards Librarian, 846 Prospect St., Appleton. 
A set of colored bird slides with a typewriter lec¬ 
ture may be rented from Prof. W. S. Marshall, 114 
E. Gorham Street, Madison, Wis. 
Illinois Schools may use, without expense, a libr¬ 
ary or a lecture with lantern slides, by applying to 
Mrs. Ruthven Deane, 504 N. State St., Chicago. 
CHICKADEE. 
The black capped chickadee is the common¬ 
est and most generally distributed member 
of the Titmouse family. 
Throughout the greater part of its range 
the Chickadee is found at all seasons, but it 
is with winter that these merry little black 
and white midgets are generally associated. 
Their tameness, quaint notes and friendly 
ways make them unusually companionable 
birds; one need not lack for society when 
Chickadees are to be found. Many of their 
notes are especially conversational in charac-, 
ter, and in addition to the familiar “chicka¬ 
dee” call they have a high, sweet, plaintive 
two or three noted whistle. 
The Chickadee nests about the middle of 
May, selecting some suitable cavity or making 
one for himself in a decayed trunk or limb and 
lining it with moss, plant down, and feathers. 
The eggs, five to eight in number, are white, 
spotted and speckled, chiefly at the larger end, 
with cinnamon or reddish brown.— 
Chapman, Bird Life. 
Letters about the Chickadee should be sent 
to the secretaries by March. 1. 
ILLINOIS SECRETARY’S LETTER. 
My dear neAV Wayside Friends: 
I am going to write my first letter to you 
about a great horned owl that a boy I know 
caught and kept as a pet. I wonder if the 
name “great horned owl” means much to you? 
Perhaps you have heard one of these lovely 
birds hooting ’way off in the woods in sum¬ 
mer; they are sometimes called “hoot owls.” 
They are very large indeed, and they have 
large yellow eyes, long ear tuffs that look 
much more like ears than horns, I think, and 
they are mottled all over, buff and brown 
and white. They are the softest thing I 
ever felt for their feathers are long, thick and 
downy. 
These great horned owls lay two large white 
DO'O’S 
early 
in the spring 
time, 
one 
of which 
hatches out 
some time 
be- 
fore 
the 
other does, 
so 
that 
one 
little 
owl is 
quite strong 
and 
flying 
about 
when its twin is still very much of a baby. So 
one day in May when some boys were looking 
for the young owls, one owl kept far off be¬ 
ing able to fly very well; the other spread 
his wings for what was probably his first 
flight, and saifed slowly to- the ground. The 
boys threw a coat over him, picked him up, 
and carried him home without anv trouble. 
v 
They kept him just a year, first in a piano 
box with wire netting stretched across the 
open side, and later they gave him the free¬ 
dom of the stable loft. 
When first caught the young owl had al¬ 
ready outgrown his bab t y down of white, and 
being nearly full grown in spite of his being 
so helpless, he wore a summer coat of buff 
or pale yellow. In the fall he looked just 
like any fully grown hoot owl. 
He was ahvays ready to eat and ate every¬ 
thing offered to him. Rats, mice and English 
Sparrows he liked particularly and even June 
bugs, but he lived mostly on butcher’s meat. 
He never seemed to tear any of his food and 
swallowed everything whole. He did not even 
hesitate to gulp down a red squirrel. . 
He never grew at all tame and never got to 
like anyone, at best only tolerating visitors. 
When left alone by day he sat motionless, 
his feathers drawn close to his body, and his 
large eyes nearly closed. But if a cat happen¬ 
ed to pause before his box he was excited at 
once, and stared hard at the cat till it turned 
tail and ran off. The owlet puffed himself 
up when people ccame near him, shifting un¬ 
co sily from one foot to the other and breath¬ 
ing hard through his open beak. Sometimes 
