BY THE WAYSIDE 
71 
trees, posts, and bird boxes and lay from 
four to six egg. The bluebirds come the 
first week in March and go South about 
the middle of October. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 14. Carrie Keister. 
_ 
Little York, Ill. ? Jan. 3Q, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
During the first part of the winter we 
began to feed the birds. We put up 
benches on the coal house, and nailed 
meat and bones to the maple trees near 
the coal house. We fed them bread 
eggshells, apples, and other food which 
the children would leave from their 
lunches. The birds that feed every day 
are the white-breasted nuthatch, the 
chickadee, and three kinds of woodpeckers 
the hairy, the downy, and another large 
checkered or zebra-backed one whose 
name we do not know. One day the 
chickadee and the downy woodpecker 
ate together from the same pan. The 
average number of birds seen every day 
was fourteen. 
Hazel A. Maley. 
Maywood, Ill., February 28, 1907. 
Derr Wayside: 
Last year there were two white-breasted 
nuthatches in our trees. We had an old 
tree without any leaves on. We put 
some crumbs and a cup of water in it. 
They ate the crumbs. They would fly 
in the other trees, too. They lay six to 
eight eggs. They are six inches long. 
Thev have a white breast,- and their 
heads are white on the sides. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 10. Florence Fox. 
Little York, Ill., Feb, 25, 1907. 
Dear Wavside: 
We saw these birds daily during De¬ 
cember, January and February. The 
white-breasted nuthatch, downy and 
hairy woodpeckers, bluejay, chickadee, 
crow, English sparrow, junco, cardinal 
grosbeak, goldfinch, tufted titmouse and 
tree sparrow. 
We saw these birds often, one or two 
days in each week. The marsh(?) hawk, 
screech and hoot owls, quail and wild 
geese. We saw these once during the 
winter: the American cross-bill, evening 
grosbeak, sparrow-hawk, bald eagle, red¬ 
tailed hawk, cedar waxwing, golden 
crowned kinglet, and prairie chicken. 
Since February the sixteenth we have 
seen the bluebird, robin, and song spar¬ 
row. Hazel A. Maley. 
Maywood, Ill,, February 28, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
I saw a white-breasted nuthatch. He 
is an ashy blue and he has a black cap. 
His breast is white and he explores the 
tree. Sometimes with his head down 
and sometimes his head up. Lots of 
times he gets a nut and he puts it in the 
bark of the tree and crack it in that wav. 
%/ 
He lays from six to eight eggs., They 
are a reddish-brown. He sings through 
his nose. It is like yank, yank, yank. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 11. Allen Woodle Garner. 
Little York, Ill., Jan. 30, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
One day we saw in our Austrian Pine 
tree a flock of crossbills. They were 
