BY THE WAYSIDE 
II 
SCHOOL BRANCH DEPARTMENT 
Every Wisconsin School Branch is required to subscribe for at least one copy of BY THE WAYSIDE 
Letters for this department should be written on only 
one side of the page, should gire the name, age and ad¬ 
dress of the writer, and should be mailed by the first of 
the month; Illinois children sending to Miss Juliet 
Goodrich, 10 Astor St., Chicago, Ill., and Wisconsin 
children to Miss Edna Edwards, Appleton, Wis. An 
honor badge will be awarded for each state every month 
preference being given to letters about the bird study 
for the month (which is always on this page) and to or¬ 
iginal observations. Any child who wins the honor 
badge twice will receive By The W ayside one year as a 
prize. 
The wren button, which is the badge of the Audubon 
Society, costs two cents, and may be bought from Miss 
Goodrich or Miss Edwards, 
Any Wisconsin School Branch may, without expense, 
have the use of the Gordon and Merrill Libraries of bird 
books, by applying to Miss Sophia Schaefer, Librarian, 
679 North St.. Appleton. 
A set of colored bird slides with a typewritten lecture 
may be rented from Prof. W. S. Marshall, 114 E. Gorham 
Street, Madison, Wis. 
Illinois Schools, may use. without expense, a library 
or a lecture with lantern slides, by applying to Mrs. 
Ruthven Deane, 504 N. State St., Chicago. 
Song Sparrotf. 
It is the song sparrow who in Febru¬ 
ary opens tlie season of song, and it is 
the song sparrow who in November sings 
its closing notes; nor, except during a 
part of August, has his voice once been 
missing from the choir. 
I His modest chant always suggests good 
cheer and contentment, but heard in si¬ 
lent Februarv, it seems the divinest bird 
lay to which mortal ever listened. The 
! magic of his voice bridges the cold 
months of early spring; as we listen to 
him the brown fields seem green, flowers 
bloom, and the bare branches become 
clad with softly rustling leaves. 
You cannot go far afield without meet¬ 
ing him. He is not only our commonest 
sparrow, but one of our commonest birds. 
Generally you will find him on or near 
the ground at the border of some under¬ 
growth, and if there be water near by 
preferably a meadow brook, his presence 
is assured. When flushed he will doubt¬ 
less make forThe nearest thicket,“pump- 
I mg” his tail, as Thompson expressively 
says, in describing his somewhat jerky 
flight. Now he questions you with a 
mildly impatient chimp or trink, a call- 
note not to be mistaken for that of any 
other species, when once you ' have 
learned it. Equally diagnostic is the 
bird’s spotted breast with one larger 
spot in its center. 
The song sparrow’s nest is usually 
placed on the ground, but sometimes 
brush may be chosen for a nesting site. 
The eggs, four in number, are bluish 
white, thickly marked with reddish 
brown. The song sparrow rears three 
broods each year, the nesting season 
lasting from Mav to August. 
Chapman in Bird Life. 
Wisconsin Prize Letter. 
Mazomanie, Wis., March 22, ’07. 
Dear Wavside: 
•> 
As I was going home from school last 
night I saw two meadowlarks sitting by 
the road. They sang as I went along 
and as I got nearer home, I saw a little 
bird sitting up in a tree but I did not 
know what it was, but I found out after¬ 
wards that it was a nuthatch. 
Yours trulv, 
•/ * 
Aged 13. Clarence Leach. 
Illinois Prize Letter. ' 
Little York, Ill., March 29, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
The meadow larks have come back. 
We were glad to see them. There seem 
to be more than we have seen in any 
other spring. The first one we saw was 
on March 14th. It was on a hedge 
branch facing the sun as we were going 
home from school. It had a clear, pretty 
whistle. It opened its mouth very wide 
when it whistled. When we came near 
