10 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
Billy. 
Decatur, Ill. 
Billy was a bluejay, whom I raised 
from a bare fledgling to one of the most 
beautiful blue and white ‘‘sass boxes” 
that ever sat on a branch of a leafy tree 
in Spring. He was brought to me by a 
neighbor who was spending the day in 
the country. As she and her friend sat 
under a tree, this wee birdling fell into 
her lap. The tree was so tall, that her 
friend could not climb it, and fearing 
owls or cats, he brought it home to me. 
I had raised several birds that spring 
and he thought that I might take pleas¬ 
ure in trying to make the tiny creature 
live to enjoy this beautiful world of ours. 
We had an unused room in the house 
and this I called my a bird-bower,” as I 
raised all of my birds in there. The 
floor I covered with papers and removed 
all furniture from the room. In the 
center of the room I placed an earthen 
dish, eight inches in diameter and one and 
one-half in depth. In this he bathed. 
Dishes of food and a water dish sat 
around while long poles stretched from 
window to window, served as perches. 
Bill ate raw meat bread, worms fruit, 
or anything he could get his bill on, but 
onions. He grew to be a strong healthy 
bluejay and as beautiful a specimen as I 
ever saw. As he grew he became mis¬ 
chievous. When let out of the room (as I 
did once a day) he would take things off 
the dressers and tables, tear up news¬ 
papers, and pull corks from bottles. As 
soon as I found out this last, I was very 
careful not to leave any poisonous sub¬ 
stances about, but alas! One day he spied 
a vial of sulphite of zinc and mischiev¬ 
ously pecked a hole in the cork. 
When I put him in his pen and gave him 
fresh food and water at four o’clock, he 
did not seem as well. The next morn¬ 
ing when I went to let him out. nothing 
but a bunch of ruffled feathers remained 
to tell the pathetic story. 
Ruth Brooks Hostetter. 
Domestic Troubles. 
The whole neighborhood has been in¬ 
terested in a pair of robins this spring 
who when they returned from their 
winter trip seemed tamer than the usual 
bird and chose a porch for their first nest¬ 
ing place. A pair of sparrows saw them 
and thought they were intruding so took 
possession. They brought material 
which the .robins used. When the nest 
was finished the robins went off for a day 
or two and the sparrows were undis¬ 
turbed, but one day when they came 
home Mrs. Robin was calmly keeping 
house there. You never saw such mad 
sparrows but they could not drive off the 
robins so they themselves went. In due 
time the birds were hatched and grew. 
There were three in all, one large one 
which was a robin and was always on 
top and two small ones who could never 
get more than their beaks above the edge 
of the nest. One day when' we went to 
look the two small ones had departed 
and the robin was ready to start so we 
never really saw, but we^ire sure that 
those robins hatched two sparrows. 
They have built another nest now in a 
tree just above the roof and again. the 
sparrows helped bring material, but this 
time when the nest was finished the 
robins drove off the intruders, though 
they never minded them during the con¬ 
struction of the home. 
