BY THE WAYSIDE 
black and white on the top of its head, 
bordered by black. The cheeks are black, 
the breast white in the middle with black 
stripes by the sides, and tail black. 
Wings with two cross-bars, some white 
edged with white quills. Its bill and 
feet are black. 
It comes in April and stays until late 
September. Its nest is made out of bark, 
grass, leaves, and hair and built in a 
stump, or a low bush. It lays from four to 
five eggs which are colored red and brown. 
In the winter they go south or to Central 
America. The song is u see-see-see.” It 
is a cunning little song. It is sometimes 
called a creeper because it creeps from 
branch to branch hunting for bugs and 
insects. It likes these insects for food. 
Yours truly. 
Aged 11. Constantina Nagel. 
A Bird Story. 
I live at the foot of a large bluff and 
every morning I hear a great many birds 
singing. 
I have seen the Indigo Bunting, Scar¬ 
let Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Cat¬ 
bird, Brown Thrush, and a Chippy Bird 
has been coming down to our house every 
day and eats what the cat has left. F 
throw crumbs out for it. 
I go to school every day. The school 
house is a little farther around the bluff 
than my home. There are a great many 
birds around our school building. I saw 
the female Tanager for the first time this 
summer. You would not believe it was 
a Tanager if you did not know it. It has 
a veryjdark green on its back, and a 
greenish yellow breast and a black tail 
and wings. 
One Sunday afternoon my friend and I 
went up on the bluff. We were looking 
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9 
over the country at other bluffs. I saw 
a very pretty bird. I have not been able 
to find out what bird it was. This bird 
was dark blue down to the top of its 
wings and in front it went down to a 
point and below this it was reddish 
brown as well as I could see. 
E. E. E. 
A Robin’s Nest. 
One day when my sister and I had to 
stay out of school we didn’t have any¬ 
thing to do. We had been looking out 
of doors for a long time when we noticed 
a robin working away in one of our lilac 
bushes. It was building a nest. After 
it had flown away I put some string and 
rags in front of one of our windows, then 
watched for it to come back. When it 
came back it saw some string and rags 
and went to get them. It hopped along 
on the ground until it came to where the 
things were, looked around, folded them 
in its mouth, hopped back, and began to 
weave them in its nest. It worked verv 
j 
fast. I put some rags out quite a few 
times, and each time it took them. 
After a while it laid some eggs but left 
its nest. Marguerite Jennings. 
Dear Wayside: 
I have seen many beautiful birds, but 
the beautifulest one of all is the robin. 
He is always happy. No rain is wet 
enough to make him unhappy. 
One day I noticed a bird’s nest in a 
tree by my house. Of course I was so 
inquisitive I climbed up to see what kind 
of a nest it was. When I got to the top 
of the tree I saw it was a robin’s nest. It 
had four blue eggs in it. Every day 
since I watched it to see the little birds. 
Soon I forgot about it. But as I was 
