BY THE WAYSIDE . 
67 
1 got up and looked to see what was the mat¬ 
ter. I found out that another owl, upon 
hearing the noise of the former scuffle had 
come out of the hole and had grabbed me. 
I looked around. No more owls were in sight 
so I put my hand in the hole and pulled out 
two eggs, t picked up the two dead owls and 
with' my eggs proceeded towards home . I put 
the eggs under a sitting hen. One of the eggs 
did not hatch but the other one did and grew 
to be a large bird. I named him Blinkey as he 
was a very quarrelsome bird. He had many 
battles especially with the old hens when he 
would try to steal their little chickens. He be¬ 
came very troublesome and we had to clip 
his wings. One morning he had a light with 
an old turkey gobbler and was killed. Mother 
was not at all sorry that troublesome Blink- 
ey was out of the wav. 
Millie Kinney, 
Second ward school. Madison, Wis. 
ENGLISH SPARROWS. 
There is much to say about the English 
sparrow, for and against. In the first place 
we must remember that, they like the colored 
race, did not come voluntarily to this coun¬ 
try, but were brought for a purpose. If they 
have out-lived their usefulness, is it their 
fault? The complaint that they drive away 
song birds is often made. In some localities 
where they exist in large numbers there is 
no doubt but what they do. In that case 
the only remedy is to lessen the number, eith¬ 
er with a shot gun or poison. January is a 
good month for the poison for then they are 
more likely to be the only bird, but it really 
seems cruel to kill them for their faithfulness. 
What would our winters be without the noisy 
cheerful little English sparrow. How glad we 
are in February to see them preparing for 
spring with their clean white colors and black 
bibs. They are without a doubt the only 
birds whose nests we do not welcome about 
our homes. Yet we cannot fail to admire 
their industry and perseverance. They will re¬ 
place their nests as fast as they are pulled 
down. I once watched a pair build their 
nest in a street light. The next morning the 
man pulled it out and again they filled in 
the straw; again the man pulled it out. I saw 
this repeated every day for over a week, then 
I lost track of them, they are not ornamen¬ 
tal, but they are never idle and must destroy 
many destructive worms and bugs. I quote 
the following praise although it is grudgingly 
given: “Occasionaly English sparrows do 
some good; recently I saw several of them 
eating weed seeds ,some of the birds clung 
to the stalks, while others picked up seeds 
from the ground or obtained what they could 
by flying upwards at them*’. We must ad¬ 
mit that even the most disliked birds can be 
of use. 
NIGHTHAWKS AT A FIRE. 
t\ hen Mrs. J. Koebel’s barn was struck by 
lightening and burned a few weeks ago, Mac 
Evans said that dozens of nightliawks were 
circuling around over the fire. The barn 
was set afire about two o’clock; the night 
was very dark and the rain pouring, but in 
a few moments nightliawks were at the 
fire. It may be that the light attracted 
moths and insects and that it was these the 
birds were after.—T. Review. 
During the summer Mrs. Evans noticed that 
nearly every evening, their cat went to a 
little hollow and sitting down waited for 
the nightliawks to appear. When these birds 
came, they flew back and forth over the cat, 
coming so close to her that they ruffled the 
fur on her back. When one came near she 
jumped at it but never caught, one ,and 
from the birds’ actions it appeared that they 
did it to tease the cat. 
POET’S LOVE OF BIRDS. 
The poems of Lowell are filled with refer¬ 
ences to nature in her many forms, and very 
often he wrote of birds, revealing the fact 
that he was familiar with many different 
species. In his essay entitled “My Garden 
Acquaintance,” he mentions over forty kinds 
of birds with which he seemed to have been 
on close terms of friendship. 
*$***** 
“The brown buds thicken on the trees, 
Unbound, the free streams sine. 
As march leads forth across the leas 
The wild and windy spring. 
“Where in the fields tl le melted snow 
Leaves hollows warm and wet , 
Ere many days will sweetly blow 
The first blue violet.” 
—From Elizabeth Akers’ “April." 
