(J2 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
lie snapped Ids beak viciously and made a 
clucking, quarrelsome noise. 
The boys kept him for a year; and one even¬ 
ing when one of the boys was feeding him 
the owl crouched down, snapping his beak, 
and puffing out his feathers till he looked verv 
fierce. Suddenly the owl threw himself from 
the perch that was about level with the boy’s 
head and rushed straight at the boy’s face. 
He ducked his head just in time so that the 
owl missed him, just striking his back and 
flving wav to the other end of the loft. The 
boy ran out of the barn, and decided to let 
his cross pet go. So a few days later they 
bound the owl and carrying him into the 
woods, let him go near the place 
where they had caught him. At 
fust he flew stupidly a few feet and 
settled on the ground. The boys stirred him 
up and he rose and flew heavily to the top of 
a dead tree and that was the last the boys 
saw of their great horned owl. They hoped 
that he knew how to take care of himself 
in spite of having lived in captivity all of his 
life. 
I hope that he did too, don’t you? And now 
will you please write me about some of your 
pet birds? I’d be very glad indeed of any let¬ 
ters about your pets. 
Your sincere friend, 
Ethel E. Hooper. 
Wisconsin Prize Letter. 
Rio, Wis.. Jan. 30th, 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
One day last summer a plioebe built a nest 
our porch'. She built on the post. Fii st 
<he brought a lot of mud and then she^ lined 
it with horse-hair. Then she laid the eggs. 
There were five of them. They were white 
with' brown spots. She sat about two weeks, 
1 think, on the eggs. She would sit in her 
rest and watch us when we went out on the 
porch. One day we saw that the eggs had 
hatched, and there were five little birds. Their 
mouths were open most of the time. They 
kept the mother bird busy getting food for 
them. One day one of us took a chair and 
climbed up and tried to get one of them out 
of the nest. 
One day we thought that the nest was too 
full so one of us climbed up and took two of 
them out and put them on the fence. The 
old mother bird watched us, but she didn’t 
seem to care. As soon as we put them on the 
fence they flew away. We never saw them 
after that. 
That same summer a mourning dove 
built in the orchard. There were only 
two eggs in the nest. The nest was made of 
small twigs and it was flat. 
Aged 7. Ellis Cutsforth. 
Chicago, Dec. 13, 1904. 
Dear Wayside: 
I am going to tell about the bluejay. It is 
a very mean bird. It will do all the 
harm it can do other birds. It is a 
very pretty bird, but is very harmful. It 
has a black collar and on the head of the male 
it has a crest. The female has a crest too, but 
it is not so large. The wings and tail are 
deep blue. They are white-tipped and black- 
barred. It has a harsh noisy call-note. It 
stays the year around at Lincoln Park. 
Yours truly, 
Urelius. 
Rio, Wis., Jan. 27,. 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
One day this summer when I was walking 
in the yard, I saw a robin on a branch of a 
tree. One day 1 wondered if the robin had any 
little ones, so I thought that I would climb up 
and see. In the nest were four little robins. 
The little robins opened their mouths wide 
when they saw me. The big robin flew over 
to the other side of the tree and sang. In two 
or three days I thought I would see if the 
little robins were there yet. When I went out 
in the orchard there was one little one on 
the post, and one on a pile of straw, and the 
third on the ground. I took them and put 
them down back of the barn, because I was 
afraid the cat would get them. I could not 
find the other one. When I was in the house 
1 saw the old robin sitting on the tree. 
Yours truly, 
Affed 10. Vina Carney. 
ft 
The Blue Jay. 
The blue jay is blue and white. He is quite 
a large bird, and builds its nest out of paper, 
cotton and sticks. Tt is a destructive bird 
and is very mean. There were some little 
wrens which built in a hole in the bricks of 
a house. When the eggs were hatched there 
were five little birds. There were two jay 
birds sitting in a tree, and they went into 
