BY THE WAYSIDE 
71 
live eggs. She has two broods of children 
every year. Then she sits on the eggs to 
hatch them. While she sits on the nest the 
male leaves her and goes away. When it is 
time for the eggs to hatch he comes back to 
help the mother get food for the young. The 
little robins have no feathers when they 
come out of the shell, but look like a bunch 
of hair. Then the father and mother are 
kept busy all day finding food for the young- 
robins. The mother has to chew the food 
for the little robins before she gives it to 
them. The robins grow quite slowly. When 
they are large enough to fly, the mother teach¬ 
es them how. When they leave she lays 
eggs for the second brood. Then the mother 
sits on them and goes through with the same 
process as before. When the last brood has 
grown up, summer has passed, and the rob¬ 
ins make their journey southward. 
Otto Trentlage, 
Aged 12. Appleton, Wis. 
South Maywood, Ill, Jan. 30, 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
One night my sister and I were going home 
from school, we saw a big owl. We stopped 
to look at it and saw its feathers were brown 
and its wings were black. It had big brown 
eyes, and as we were going up to it, "it 
dew away. We watched where it went and 
followed it until it dew so far that we 
could not see it any more. I think an owl is 
a very pretty bird. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 11. Francis Engelmann. 
Maywood, Ill. 
Dear Wayside: 
The bluejay has a blue back, a white breast, 
a crown on his head, a light purple head and 
two white spots on his back. He likes nuts, 
bread, bones and other things. While we 
were having our pictures taken last summer 
a bluejay was dying around us. 
Yours truly. 
* * 
Aged 11. Helen Heinemann. 
Well, spring is here and so are the birds. 
I hey can be seen dying in among the trees 
and bushes everywhere. We have been work¬ 
ing in the woods this winter, and have learn¬ 
ed several new things about the birds, that 
I didn’t know before. Birds have been ar¬ 
riving in large numbers from the south. 
The chickadees, I guess, have gone north, 
but the robins, blue birds, wood thrushes, 
song sparrows, larks, and wild geese take 
their place which is agreeable to me. 
Willie N. Williams, 
Miner P. 0.,Wis. 
Durand, Was. 
Dear Wayside: 
I found a swallow’s nest that had four 
eggs in it. The eggs were white with little 
brown spots on. The birds hatched but 
they did not look pretty at drst. They just 
had a little hair on but a week after they 
had little feathers on. Soon thev learned to 
fly- 
Aged 8. John Mace. 
THE SONG SPPARROW. 
The song sparrow is about six inches long. 
He has a light breast which is streaked with 
brown and black. The song sparrow is one 
of our favorite singers. He has a note that 
is like a whistle of a boy. The female is 
almost brown, and the male is brighter. One 
moj-ning when I was coming from town, I 
heard the song sparrow sing. I could not find 
him at first, but after a long look I found 
him in an apple tree. He was eating the rot¬ 
ten apples from last year. The boys around 
our house are making bird houses for the 
birds. 
Aged 12. John Loos. 
Chicago, Feb. 15, 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
The chicken hawk is a very cruel bird. 
He eats little chickens or kills them. Last 
summer I was on a farm and a chicken 
hawk flew down and was going to catch a 
little chicken when my uncle killed him. The 
chicken liawks are about sixteen to eighteen 
inches long. When a mother hen sees a chick¬ 
en hawk she calls her chickens to come under 
her wings and they usually come. 
Yours truly, 
Gladys Smith, 
A g ed 9 - Julia Ward Howe School. 
Summer Residents That Come in IVIarcli. 
Kildeer, Marsh Hawk, Sparrow Hawk, Red- 
si ion] deered Hawk, Phoebe, Bed-winged Black 
Bird, Bronzed Grackle, Meadowlark, Song 
Sparrow, Robin, Blue Bird. 
ar- 
