32 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
watched through the bird-house window, 
and one egg was not hatched yet. In 
another bird-house I have barn swallows, 
and they have eggs that are not hatched 
yet. 
Yours truly. 
Aged 12 vears. Harold Smith. 
o 
Maywood, Ill., May 29. 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
There is a gentleman across the way 
who has a tame thrush and when it is 
warm he lets it out in the garden and it 
runs around. He got it when it was a 
little thing. It had fallen out of a tree. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 12. Mary Bod man. 
Other letters have been received from 
Maywood from George Warde, Ebba 
Olsen, Muriel Bodman, Helen Hinemann, 
Mamie Lembke and Delia Banks. 
Another Albino Sparrow. 
For two summers Harold Peebles re¬ 
ports that he has seen a pure white Eng¬ 
lish sparrow near Bear Creek Corners, 
Wisconsin. 
NATURE STUDY IN SCHOOLS. 
Moths aud Butterflies. 
Continued from page 28. 
in the latter they are commonly slim 
shafts ending in knobs. 
The adult life is commonly short, often 
only long enough for the eggs to be de¬ 
posited. In some, even, there is no 
mouth. When mouth parts are present 
they are converted into a long tube for 
sucking honey from flowers, coiled up 
like a watch-spring when not in use. In 
gathering their food they do good service 
to plants by carrying pollen from one to 
another. 
The stages-of this wonderful develop¬ 
ment may be followed in any' school. 
Caterpillars can be found in the fall; 
quantities of them the children will bring 
in. Commonly they are ready to pupate: 
often as if by magic the green crawler 
has disappeared and a hard case may be 
ound in its place. The larger insects 
like the common big Cecropia, are, of 
course, more valuable for showing clearly, 
especially to the small children, the 
stages in the life history. The heat of 
the school-room will commonly hasten 
the development, and the adults may be 
expected to emerge in late winter or early 
spring. 
While the metamorphoses is being ob¬ 
served, point out the economic value, too. 
Those that aid in the fertilization of 
plants are, of course, useful to man. 
There are also many that are harmful, 
eating the foliage of useful plants. 
Knowing the life history, it is easily seen 
that the most effective wav to destrov 
* %/ 
these is when thev are in the egg or lar- 
val stages. But man for all his know¬ 
ledge has little chance to wage success¬ 
ful war on so small an enemv. Fortu- 
• ** 
nately nature has placed a check upon 
them. The birds come to our aid. Manv 
of our feathered friends, like the wood¬ 
peckers, eat enormous numbers of the 
larvae and eggs. When they become 
scarce through natural causes or man’s 
neglect, insects multiply. 
R. M. 
This number of By the Wayside goes 
to many of the rural schools of Wis¬ 
consin, free of charge, a gift from the 
State Audubon Society. It is hoped 
that it many thus reach a larger number 
of children, and that they may be inter¬ 
ested more actively in bird study and 
protection. It will be sent for one year, 
in care of the teacher. All thatisasked 
in return is that acknowledgment be 
made to the editor, and that pupils be 
encouraged to write letters to the paper 
about their bird interests. 
