BY THE WAYSIDE 
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and put up a scarecrow to keep the birds 
away. In a week or so he came out to 
see how it was growing. The crows had 
eaten it. 
Mr. Osborne tells this story of a crow 
he caught. He cut a cord in its throat 
called the chattering string and it learned 
to talk. Every night when it is time for 
school to let out it would fly to the school 
house and come home with the children. 
He kept it for two or three years. Then 
some crows came around and it flew 
away with them. He saw it just once 
more. It was on a fence with some 
other crows talking as hard as it could to 
them. 
My father caught a crow last summer. 
It had a broken wing. The crow grabbed 
him by the hand. As soon as his hand 
was loose and he got into the buggy the 
crow grabbed a line in each claw. Father 
held the crow' while the crow hung to 
the lines till they got home. Mrs. Dodge 
and mamma pulled away the lines while 
papa held the crow bv the back. 
In our books we find some verses 
about the crow. Here are some: 
The jay, that noisy demagogue, 
In woodland, marsh or bog, 
Who screams from every stump and log, 
Or bending thorn, 
Steals like a patriotic rogue 
The yellow corn. 
But thou, more obdurate in crime, 
Impatient of the harvest time, 
Thy name in every land and clime 
Hast odious made 
By pulling in its early prime 
The yellow corn. 
Thy very aspect proves thee base, 
The profile of thy stealthy face 
Betrays the nature of thy race, 
To thieve and prowl, 
And makes thy presence a disgrace 
Along honest fowl. 
Katherine Halden. 
Merrill, Wisconsin. 
Mauston, Wis., June, 6, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
There is a rose-breasted grosbeak 
building a nest in one of our trees at 
home. The nest is way up in the top of 
one of the elms. The male grosbeak sits 
upon our house and sings while the fe¬ 
male builds the nest. When the female 
flies away to get some grass or twigs for 
the nest The male would fly and sing, 
wherever the female went. There are 
two chipping sparrows’ nests in our ever¬ 
greens. The eggs in one nest are green 
with black spots on the large end. The 
eggs in the other nest are green with the 
black spots on the small end. A chip¬ 
ping sparrow’s nest is made of horsehair. 
A catbird was building a nest in another 
evergreen tree beside our house. It has 
left its nest. I felt sorry for I would 
watch it build. The catbird has a very 
pretty song. It isn’t a very pretty bird, 
but its eggs are such a pretty green, a per¬ 
son could not help but look at them. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 12 John Miller. 
Mauston, Wis., May, 5, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
This morning as I was through with 
examination there was an old flicker 
came near the window and called. My 
teacher told me to go down and see what 
was the matter with her. I went down 
and the stub that her young were in had 
fallen and spilled thorn out on the 
k. 
ground. Soon teacher sent another boy 
down and we put them back in the nest 
again. After a while the old flicker 
came back and seemed to try to thank 
us. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 14 Grover Kimball. 
Cross Plains, Wis. 
Dear Wavside: 
I will drop a few lines about the blue 
jav. I see him every morning in our 
corn field. His colors are light blue and 
white; that is why we call him blue jay. 
I have learned quite a little about birds 
this vear for I read the Wayside at times. 
Yours, 
Minnie Rersdorf. 
