BY THE WAYSIDE 
47 
j 
Mazomanie, Wis., Oct., 30, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
Two weeks ago Sunday I saw two 
little snowbirds sitting on a wire fence. 
They had a black back and black under 
the bill. The breast was white. Some¬ 
times they would hop down among the 
weeds to get some seeds. Last Tuesday 
when I was coming to school I saw 
another snowbird. 
Your friend, 
Rolland Beardsley. 
Mazomanie, Wis., Oct., 29, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
Last spring I noticed some robins 
building in a tree near our house. I 
watched them for several days. Then I 
put some string out for them. When 
1 
the nest was nearly done some bluejays 
came and had a fight with the robins. 
The robins went away. The bluejays 
built in one of our neighbor’s trees. 
Your friend, 
Aged 13. Minnie Rohr. 
Mazomanie, Wis., Oct., 29, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
I will write and tell vou about the 
* 
birds I saw. They were very pretty. 
Last summer there was a bluebird built 
a little nest in a can that we set on a post. 
I There was a little hole in the front of the 
can. It layed four eggs. They raised 
them until they were quite big. Then 
they began to fly. This summer they 
came in this can again. They layed four 
eggs. When they were big enough all 
flew away except one. That one was 
sick, but it got better in a few days. 
The next day it flew away and was al¬ 
right again., 
Goodbye, 
Geneva Pesch. 
Mazomanie, Wis., Oct., 25, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
Last spring there was a robin building 
his nest in one of our pine trees. It had 
four blue eggs in and after they had 
hatched there were four robins in the 
nest. At another time a bluejay had its 
nest in a pine tree in our yard. There 
were five little ones in the nest. Then 
this spring a field sparrow built its nest 
along the bank of a creek. After the 
little birds were hatched the creek came 
up and washed the nest away and I 
never saw the nest again. 
Frank Cairns. 
Continued from page 42. 
these species but are not family groups. 
Seventh. Embraces regional groups 
of which only a single example exists at 
present but which will be succeeded by 
others. This is a large group sixteen by 
seven feet, with a painted background 
greatly extending its range, portraying 
the bird life of a marsh. The study and 
collecting for this group was done on 
marshes near the shore of Green Bay. 
Fourteen species are shown by sixty-nine 
birds and numerous nests and eggs. It 
is an ecological study of such a region 
and will probably be followed by studies 
of prairies, deserts, etc. 
Eighth. Consists of exhibits illustrat¬ 
ing facts and theories of ornithology such 
as evolution by environment shown by 
various races of song sparrow placed on 
a map of North America, evolution by 
artificial selection shown bv the pigeon, 
individual color variation shown by the 
ruff*, dichromation by the screech owl, etc. 
Ninth. We come to what will be when 
finished the introduction to the entire 
avian exhibit. It Is not a synoptic or 
systematic treatment of the subject but 
