BY THE WAYSIDE. 
39 
The crow is one of the most interesting 
birds that we have, and a bird that one is 
well paid in studying. Three especially good 
biographies of the crow are: “The Common 
Crow in the United States,” by Walter B. 
Barrows and E. A. Schwartz, issued by the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture; “The Crow 
in Massachusetts,” by E. H. Forbusch, issued 
by the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture; 
and “The. American Crow,” by Frank L. 
Burns, published by the Wilson Ornitholog¬ 
ical chapter, of Oberlin College, Ohio. 
N. C. G. 
Prizes and Badges. 
The honor badges for July are won by 
Hortense Guggenheimer of Galena ,111., and 
Yeda Marsh of Antigo, Wis. 
A gold pin will be given to the child who 
wins the Wisconsin honor badge for the 
third time after June, 1902. 
A handsome bird-book will be given to the 
writer of the best letter about “A Bird House 
and its Occupants,” handed in before October 
first. 
Another prize book will be given for the 
best set of migration notes kept through 
September and October. These notes should 
• 
give the date, the time of day, the weather, 
the locality, the species seen, whether the 
birds were flying singly or in flocks, and 
whether they were stopping to feed. 
Our Letter-box. 
Southwest Harbor, 
Mt. Desert Island, Maine. 
My Dear Wayside Children: Isn’t this 
a long way for me to send you a letter? Sup¬ 
pose you take maps and find out where I 
am. Not too far away to think of you and 
wmnder where you all are this lovely day. 
How I wish I could pick you all up and 
put you all down here in this beautiful place 
so you could see the mountains and islands 
and woods and sea with me. Wouldn’t we 
have a good time? though perhaps you 
wouldn’t enjoy being “picked up,” and I am 
sure I should let some of you slip through 
my fingers! 
I am writing you now, out of doors, sitting 
on some rocks by the sea, and when I look 
up from my paper I “lift up mine eyes unto 
the hills” with the beautiful white clouds 
floating over them. Sometimes the white 
gulls float past, almost like clouds them¬ 
selves, but it makes me sad to see how few 
there are and to know that they have had 
to give so many of their number to the 
milliners. How anyone, who has ever seen 
the gulls, free and beautiful, can think they 
look better on a hat, is something you and 
I cannot guite understand, for we are all 
good Audubonites, and we like our birds 
to be thoroughly alive. This state of Maine 
hasn’t any Audubon society, but we are hop¬ 
ing it will have soon. There are some lovely 
birds here and this morning I saw a gay 
little redstart and a pine warbler flying about 
in the evergreens. There were one or two 
other warblers but they were not as con¬ 
siderate as the little gentleman in the pine 
tree. Perhaps he thought, as this is the 
“pine tree state,” he ought to do the honors 
and give a special welcome to a stranger 
from Illinois. 
Now, there are some things I want to tell 
you, and one is that after this, as some of 
you know, Mrs. Scudder is to take care of 
the children’s part of the work in Illinois. 
That does not mean that I have given up 
the work, or that I am never going to write 
you any more letters. It only means that 
you are to send your letters to Mrs. Scudder 
and she will take care of the buttons and 
the honor badges and be your own special 
officer. 
Then I want you to know that we have 
two good “Traveling Libraries,” each hav¬ 
ing twelve books about birds, and these are 
to be lent to any schools or clubs that want 
them. Mrs. Ruthven Deane, 504 North State 
street, Chicago, has charge of them; so, if 
your teachers would like to have them you 
just write a letter to Mrs. Deane 
Then there is another thing that we are 
glad to tell you, and that is that we are go¬ 
ing to have a set of bird slides for a “trav¬ 
eling lecture,” that can be sent to different 
towns and schools so you can see some lovely 
pictures of birds. If you tell your teachers 
about the libraries and lecture, I think some 
