BY THE WAYSIDE 
69 
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 of the 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 wii.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 may 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 mav use. without expense, a libr¬ 
ary or a lecture with lantern slides, by applying to 
Mrs. Ruthven Deane, 504 N. State St., Chicago. 
THE WISCONSIN SECRETARY’S LETTER. 
My Dear Wayside Readers: 
I am sending you greeting this time from 
the land of sunshine and flowers and birds. 
Where spring is come already. The air is full 
of song; the birds and the songs are, most 
of them, new and strange to me. I miss es¬ 
pecially the robin and the English sparrow; 
you will say that the last is a good miss, and 
so it is. Robins do not come here, 1 am told. 
I have seen but one and that was in an aviary. 
One day I saw dozens of meadow larks; 
they are slightly different from our Wiscon¬ 
sin form, and the song is even fuller and 
richer. 
But the mocking bird could almost make up 
for the absence of the robin. He is a pretty, 
jaunty bird, showing much white on the wings 
and tail when flying. He is very sociable, and 
builds around the houses of San Diego. 
A lady at whose home I called pointed out 
to me a place in the rose bush climbing up 
the second story window where a pair of 
mocking birds had lived. Sh'e told me a pret¬ 
ty story about them, too. She was ill and 
confined to her room for two years. From 
her bed she could watch these mocking birds. 
After a while the female disappeared, and the 
widower bird lived alone in the rosebush. Before 
long, however, he brought home a new wife. 
But she evidently thought his quarters too 
public, for she insisted that they move to 
the other side of the house and build a new 
nest. Here they reared their young, and 
came finally to regard that part of, the gar¬ 
den as exclusively their own. They would 
swoop down upon the family dog when he 
came near, and frighten him away. There were 
bushes of logan berries near the nest, and 
these they would feed to their young. They 
seriously objected when anyone came near 
them, evidently regarding the fruit as their 
own. In the nesting season the males sing 
all night to their mates. We do not hear 
much of their song at this season. I have 
heard of persons so lacking in sentiment that 
they got up nights to shoo the mocking birds 
away from their windows. As though one 
ought not to be glad of a chance to be kept 
awake by such music! 
The sea birds are a great delight, as they 
hover gracefully over the water of the harbor 
or skim the surface. There are great num¬ 
bers of them ,and many kinds. I am glad to 
see that they show little 'fear, for that shows 
that they are protected. 
By the time this reaches you spring will be 
on its way to Illinois and Wisconsin. 1 hope 
that many of you have already several birds 
upon your lists ,and that the boys and girls 
will write many letters to the Wayside about 
them. 
Very sincerely your friend, 
Ruth Marshall. 
San Diego. Cal. 
For February Prize Letter. 
La Crosse, Wis., Feb. 3 1905. 
Dear Wawside: 
Lhis is the first time I have written to you. 
I belong to the Audubon society and am in¬ 
terested in birds. Some weeks ago the trees 
in front of our school were full of Cedar Wax- 
wings. A few days ago I was playing in 
the school yard when my little brother called 
my attention to a flock of waxwings. The ce¬ 
dar waxwing get its name from the wax like 
spots on it wings. It has a topknot and a yel¬ 
low stripe on its tail which makes the bird 
very beautiful. As I was loking out of the 
school window day before yesterday, I saw 
a Hock flying around in the hatchberry tree 
so merrily. This winter there were four 
brought into school. Probably they had 
fiozen. t his is the first year 1 have ever 
