BY THE WAYSIDE 
39 
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round. The female is usually but not al¬ 
ways duller than the male. The nest is 
made of dead leaves, dried grass, moss 
and lined with hair and feathers. The 
nests are usually made in hollow trees 
and where there is a great deal of noise 
and confusion The mother bird lays from 
five to seven eggs and two or three 
broods in a season. The robin sits on 
her eggs about eleven days. On the 
eleventh day the young ones come out of 
the shell and after eight days the young 
ones have their body covered with pin 
feathers. About eleven or twelve days 
more they leave the nest and in a day or 
two they are left to the care of the male 
bird, while the female bird build another 
nest usually not far from the old one. 
Early in the spring I have seen the 
mother bird dig in the garden and picks 
up a big fat worm and fly toward the 
I nest to give it to the young. We should 
protect the robin because it eats thou¬ 
sands of worms and grubs which would 
destroy the tree if left to themselves. I 
have often watched the robin picking 
worms from cherry trees and flying 
towards the nest to the little bird, but 
the mother bird hardly ever eats the 
cherries. Its chief food is worms and 
grubs. Minnie Severson. 
Mazomanie, Wis., Oct., 25, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
One day as I was walking in the fields 
I saw four kingbirds. They were all in 
the top of a large cottonwood tree and 
singing as though they were happy. 
Perhaps it was the last song of summer. 
They are very pretty birds. They have 
!j a white fringe on their tails. 
Your loving friend, 
Eva Koenig. 
Neenah, Wis., Oct., 31, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
One morning when we were on our 
way to school we found a quail which we 
thought had been injured bv the street 
car because it was lying on the track. 
We picked it up and held it out in our 
hands but it could not fly. So we took 
it to school and put it in a box with 
some cotton-batting. It remained there 
until it was a little stronger, then it 
hopped out to try its strength. It could 
not walk very well but it would not give 
up trying. At night one of the girls 
took it home and brought it back in the 
morning. The next night she took it 
with her again and it died. The bird 
was gray and had long legs and a long 
bill. It resembled the snipe in a great 
many ways. Yours respectfully, 
Louisa Erdmann. 
Mauston, Wis., June, 4, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
One day as I was up in the jail I 
thought that I would look and see if the 
mourning dove w T as still setting and on 
looking into the nest I saw tw ? o little 
heads looking out from under their 
mother’s wing. The dove is very tame. 
As I was looking out of the wflndow I 
saw a robin hopping along on the ground. 
It had three little fellow's and jt was 
feeding them some worms and insects, 
which it picked up. Beldon Doty. 
Mazomanie, Wis., Oct., 30, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
This summer some bluebirds built in 
our yard in a gallon pail which was up¬ 
side down on a post with a hole in the 
side. They had a few little bluebirds. 
Some days when I would go to look at 
