B Y THE WAYSIDE 21 
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 give 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 Good¬ 
rich, 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 original observa¬ 
tions. Any child who wins the honor badge twice will 
receive By the Wayside one year as a prize. 
The wren button, which is the badge of the Audubon 
Socie'y, costs two cents and may be bought from Miss 
Juliet 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 street Appleton. 
A set of colored bird slides with a typewritten lecture 
may be rented from Prof. W. S. Marshall, 114 E. Gorham 
Qtrppt M a H! QGR Wi ^ 
Illinois Schools, may use. without expense, a library 
or a lecture with lantern slides, by applying to E. S. 
Adams, 439 Elm Street, Chicago. 
_ — — 
The following are stories written by 
children in the fourth and sixth grades 
for the public library contest of Merrill, 
Wis. 
The Robin. 
One of the first birds to visit us is the 
robin. Sometimes she comes as early as 
February. They will fly around their 
home in the apple tree. Their homes 
are made of a mass of sticks, leaves, 
thread, wool and feathers to hold it to¬ 
gether. Some robins build their nest 
under porches. When their nest is built 
they turn around and press hard against 
it with their breast so it looks round. In 
it will be laid the pretty blue eggs of the 
robin. The four or five eggs are laid, 
one of them never hatches. While they 
make their nest they sing very little, 
sometimes they sing only a few notes. 
If the mother robin hears a cry, she 
must hasten to the nest for the father 
robin wants to try to find some food. 
He is very kind to them and gives them 
all a piece of a fat worm. When the baby 
robins hears him coming, they open their 
wide, yellow mouths. After each meal 
the nest must be cleaned, for the robins 
are neat birds. Some of the chicken 
feathers lining the nest may be on them 
and it must be taken off. Sometimes the 
babies’ bills have dirt on them, and it 
must be cleaned. 
The robins are kind birds. I once 
heard a mixture of birds’ voices out of 
my window. Looking out, I saw an Eng¬ 
lish sparrow sitting on a limb not far off. 
It looked as if it had been dipped in 
some mud. After about half an hour’s 
work the sparrow flew away as fresh as 
new. I wonder if the sparrow learnt 
anvthing from the robin. 
Sometimes the robin puts his head 
down and listens for a moment, then 
burying his bill in the ground he gives a 
hard pull and pulls out one fat worm and 
then another until he get four or five 
when he picks them all up and flies away 
to his nest in the tree. 
Erwin Emerich. 
The Hartk. 
The hawk builds its nest in very tall 
pine trees. Its nest is built of sticks and 
leaves. The hawk lays five large eggs of 
a dirty bluish color blotched with brown. 
The male is dressed in a thick, heavy 
suit of bluish gray with a dark head¬ 
covering. He wears white about his 
throat, but his breast and sides are hand¬ 
somely flecked with light yellowish red. 
The rounded tail is marked above with 
four very dark brown bands, while the 
under part and tips of the tail feathers 
are white. The female is larger than the 
male but she is clad in about the same 
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