BY THE WAY BIDE 
79 
Chicago, Jan. 18, 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
I do not know anything about the nuthatch, 
so I will tell you about the feeding of birds. 
I h'ad a letter in the Wayside before. My 
brother put a birds’ house into a big tree in 
our back yard this summer. We wanted the 
robins to build in the house. I feed the birds 
every day. The sparrows would fight the 
robins to build in the h'ouse. While the robins 
were away the sparrows would try to get the 
nest out. When one robin would be down 
getting things to eat that I had put there, the 
sparrows would go and fight the one robin 
and peck at him. We have a large house with 
three large lots and plenty of trees. My broth¬ 
er keeps pigeons and they fly around with the 
rest of the birds in the pard. 
Yours truly. 
Aged 10. Elmer C. Ryan. 
Allendale Farm, Lake Villa, Ill., 
Feb. 8, 1905. 
My Dear Miss Hooper: 
I am going to tell you now about the nut- 
batch' that I saw. He was gray, and white 
and blue and yellow, and his other names 
are tree mouse and devil—downhead and when 
I threw a piece of bread to him on the porch 
he came and ate it, and I like to see him 
go up and down the tree. He looks like a 
mouse and I saw him from the scohol room 
I like him the best of the winter 
birds, and he does good for the trees; he kills 
the grubs and all of the boys like him and 
cats like him too. This is all for today. 
Maurice Fllerton. 
Waumandee, March 1, 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
On the 26th of February I saw a robin. 
It was sitting high upon a tree. But it stay¬ 
ed only a short time and then it flew away. 
It was a few miles from Fountain City, a 
place about sixteen miles from here. 
Year the same place I saw a pheasant. It 
was walking, on th’e ground. When we drove 
past, it did not fly away. 
While we were coming home I counted 
3n birds’ nests in the trees along the road. 
Your friend, 
Aged 11. Olive Oschner. 
Necedah, Wis., March 28, 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
The birds are coming back again and they 
seem very happy. The robins, blackbirds, 
phoebes, ground sparrows, and hawks are 
mostly here. I saw the first robin March 17. 
The ducks and geese are coming back. I saw 
eight large flocks of geese in the last week 
and four flocks of ducks, they are mostly go¬ 
ing north. This spring two quails got into 
my rabbit trap. One was dead but I tried to 
feed the other but it would not eat so I let 
it go. The birds will soon begin to build their 
nests. 
James Pratt. 
EARLY RISERS. 
A student of bird life, who has been inves¬ 
tigating the question as to the hour in summer 
when the commonest small birds wakes up 
and begins to sing, says that the green finch 
is the earliest riser, as it sings about 1:30 
o’clock in the morning. The blackcap begins 
at 2:30, and the quail half an hour later. 
Ft is nearly four o’clock and the sun is well 
up, before the first real songster appears—the 
merry blackbird. Then comes the thrush, fol¬ 
lowed by the robin and the wren, and last the 
house sparrow and the tomtit. 
Thus it will be seen th'at the lark’s reputa¬ 
tion as an early riser is not deserved. In fact, 
he is a very sluggard, for he does not rise un¬ 
til after many hedgerow birds have been about 
for some time. 
SUMMER RESIDENTS THAT COME TO 
WISCONSIN IN APRIL. 
Loon, Great Blue Heron, American Bittern, 
Wilson’s Snipe, Spotted Sandpiper, Mourning 
Dove, Kingfisher, Red-headed Woodpecker, 
Flicker, Crowbird, Vesper Sparrow, White- 
throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, 
Fov Sparrow, Purple Finch. Towhee, Barn 
Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Bank Swallow, Tree 
Swallow, Purple Martin, Brown Thrasher, 
Wood Thrush, Hermit Thrush. 
Since the last issue there has been organ¬ 
ized a school branch of the Audubon society 
at Spencer, Wis. There were over 28 at the 
first meting which was held in the school 
house. Miss Harriet Howard was elected as 
manager and it was decided to hold meetings 
every two weeks. 
