BY THE WAYSIDE 
23 
tipped with a rusty color in the fall. His 
throat, breast and sides are a dull cinna¬ 
mon rufous. The lower part of his 
breast is white. He does not stay here 
all winter. The bluebirds eggs are 
white and sometimes bluish white. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 12. Dora Gautschy. 
Granville, Ill., March 28, 1906. 
Dear Wayside: 
I thought I would write a letter this 
month. 
There are many different kinds of birds 
here now. While I was going to school 
I saw a red-tailed hawk and a screech 
owl. It is nearly time for the birds to 
come back again. 
I will tell you about the bluebird. Its 
head and back are blue and its breast is 
reddish brown. It builds its nest in 
holes in trees and lays four, five or six 
beautiful blue eggs. The bluebird is a 
song bird and a very common one. It is 
the earliest to come in the spring. 
Aged 14. Alvina Dippel. 
Elkhart Lake, Wis., April 20, 1906. 
Dear Wayside: 
This morning mv sister and brother 
and I took a walk in the woods. We 
saw a bird that looked so large that we 
thought it was a henhawk but after¬ 
wards it said “Caw, caw,” then we knew 
it was a crow. We stopped awhile and 
looked at it. He was on the top of the 
tree. When he saw us he flew to an¬ 
other tree. When we came back from 
the woods we saw a scarlet tanager. My 
teacher is Miss Ida Diehl. I am in the 
fifth grade and I am nine years old. 
Yours truly, 
Edna Metze. 
Necedah, Wis., March 20.1906. 
Dear Wayside: 
The bluebird is 7.1 inches long. It is 
brownish red on the breast and blue on 
the tail. They sing a sweet song. They 
are very pretty when they fly also when 
they are perching upon a post. 
Two years ago the bluebird chased the 
wren out of the bird box. We had four 
bird boxes up, one that had seven nests 
in, another that had only one, another 
that had two nests in, and another with 
one nest in. 
I did not remember all of them. We 
have seven but one is on the ground; the 
other is in an oak tree near the pig-pen. 
I knew of ten bird nests around here last 
summer. We had two chipping spar¬ 
rows that built in two trees. The blue¬ 
bird eats worms and bugs. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 11. Andre M. Fisher. 
Cross Plains, Wis., Nov. 29, 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
A catbird meows like a cat when in 
danger, but its song is very pretty other¬ 
wise. Sometimes it perches itself on the 
highest limb of a tree and sings for about 
ten minutes all in one string. Its eggs 
are something like a robin’s only they 
are a little smaller. One day when we 
were on our way to school we heard 
something that sounded like a cat meow¬ 
ing, we looked around and saw a blue- 
jay robbing a catbird’s nest. We chased 
the bluejay away and then we watched 
behind some bushes. The catbird began 
to cry louder than before, because the 
bluejay had torn its young ones all to 
pieces. 
Yours, 
Aged 11 years. Maine Meyer. 
