80 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
saw a goldfinch. The goldfinch is a yel¬ 
low bird with a black spot on his head 
and black wings and tail. Some people 
call it the wild canarv. It likes the seed 
•/ 
of thistles. In the winter the goldfinch 
turns brown. The one I saw had not 
turned all vellow. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 11. Mildred Morrill. 
Florid, Ill. 
Dear Wayside: 
I will write and tell you about the 
bluebird. It is brownish color on its 
breast and blue on its back. It builds 
its nest in holes in posts or trees or any 
other cavity, it builds its nest of dry grass. 
The bluebird lavs four, five or six eggs. 
After the birds are hatched they stay in 
the nest for about three weeks, then the 
mother bird teaches them to llv. They 
do not fly far at first until the} 7 can fly 
very well, then they will leave the nest 
and go to some other place. 
The bluebird goes south in the winter 
because it is too cold to stay in the north 
and food is scarce also. The bluebird is 
a very handsome bird. 
I fed the birds, but no birds came ex¬ 
cept English sparrows, chickadees and 
robins. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 13. Herman Pletsch. 
Carman, Ill., March 26, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
I thought I would write about a dove. 
There was a dove built in our plum tree, 
and it got so tame that I could touch it 
very near, and she laid two eggs and then 
she hatched one little dove. Once papa 
was plowing and I went along and papa 
found one but he did not disturb it. 
The turtle dove makes its nest with 
sticks and drv grass. 
Yours truly, 
Ravmond Chandler. 
•/ 
P. S. I am nine years old. 
Metamorphosis of the Milkweed Bntterfly. 
One day in September a boy brought 
a milkweed caterpillar to school. It was 
green with black and golden strips. It 
was about two inches long. 
It feeds on the milkweed leaves and 
eats very much before it makes its chrys¬ 
alis. The chrysalis is very beautiful. 
It is light green with golden spots on it. 
The butterfly stays in his chrysalis about 
two weeks before it comes out. Just be¬ 
fore it emerges it turns orange brown. 
We did not notice it for awhile and 
when we looked at it again, it was a but¬ 
terfly. The butterfly flies south in the 
winter. The colors of the butterfly^are 
orange-brown streaked with black and 
spotted with white. The butterflv has a 
proboscis which is the tongue with which 
it sucks the honey from the flowers. 
The body is divided into three parts. It 
has six legs, two of which we couldn’t 
find at first because they are so small. 
The antennae are the feelers with which 
it feels and hears. 
Most butterflies lay their eggs in the 
spring and the caterpillars are hatched. 
They are very small, but they grow big¬ 
ger all the time. Butterflies lay their 
eggs on the milkweed because when the 
caterpillars are hatched they will have 
something to eat. She lays a great manv 
eggs. The caterpillars change their coats 
four or five times. 
Florence Loos. 
Miss Ruby Hansley, Rhinelander, has 
twice received the prize for the best letter 
on the bird of the month. This entitles 
her to the \Y avside for one year. 
