BY THE WAYSIDE 
22 
attire as her mate and has very sharp 
claws. 
The food is composed chiefly of field 
mice, frogs, grasshoppers, squirrels and 
crickets. But if they can get duck or 
chicken they like it better. They come 
for prey at all times of the day whenever 
they can get anything. 
The hawk’s right name is the falcon, 
hut its common name is the chicken 
hawk. The hawk or falcon is not a shy 
bird. It will come and take a chicken 
any time of the day, when anyone is 
around. Ida Segar. 
Mauston, Wis., June 4, 1907. 
Dear Wavside: 
Last Sunday I saw some young wood¬ 
chucks. My brother and I went up 
where they were and they ran back into 
their hole. We took the spade and an¬ 
other shovel, two pitchforks, hoe, post 
digger, and an axe. We started to 'dig 
them out but found they had gone. Then 
we started to the house and mv brother 
told me to bring the pitchfork. I told 
him I would not do it. When we had 
got done quarreling we went off and left 
it. Monday night my father sent me up 
to get the pitchfork. The dog went with 
me and went off to another hole and began 
barking. Then I went over and took the 
pitchfork with me. When I got there I 
heard one of the woodchucks bark. The 
dog went in and the woodchucks chased 
her out. So I went down to the house 
after the post digger. When I got back 
the dog had one of the young wood¬ 
chucks out of the hole and was going to 
kill it. I took the woodchuck down to 
the house and came back. The dog ran 
around and got on the track of another 
and pretty soon she gave a jump back 
and there was another little woodchuck 
on his hind feet going to fight the dog. 
I caught this one and went down to the 
house and came back again. The dog 
tracked another and I took it to the house 
and came back, but I couldn’t see any 
more so I gave it up. Yours truly, 
Earl Stalker. 
Mauston, Wis., June 6, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
One day as I was in the country I saw 
a little fox squirrel. He was so cute I 
stopped to watch him. He would frisk 
up a tree and then down again. When 
he got something to eat he would look all 
around and then he would begin to eat. 
When I started toward him, he would 
wait until I got quite near him and then 
he would run up a tree near him and sit 
and look down at me. And when I went 
a little way off he would come down 
again and when I went near he would 
run up again. I went a little way off and 
sat on a board fence, and his mate came 
down with him this time. They ate a 
little while and then began to play. The 
game they played, it seemed to me, was 
tag. One would hit the other a bat and 
then run off'and the other would chase. 
Up trees, down trees, over stumps, logs, 
and then along the board fences and into 
the woods out of my sight. 
Yours truly, 
Max Hall. 
Mauston, Wis., June 7, 1907. 
Dear Wavside: 
Friday night, after school, I walked 
out to my aunt’s. I saw several gold¬ 
finches, and the thing I noticed especially 
