52 
B Y THE WA YS1DE 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
Published on the tenth of each month except July and 
August. 
The official organ of the Wisconsin and Illinois Audu¬ 
bon Societies. 
Twenty-five cents per year. Single Copies 5 cents 
All communications should be sent to Mr. T. R. Moyle, 
Appleton, Wis. 
Value of Nature Study. 
We wish teachers would realize how 
much they can do by exciting interest in 
bird study. We know, too, the excuse 
of many. ‘T don’t know the birds my¬ 
self.” Well, why don’t you? There are 
numerous and excellent books for begin¬ 
ners, and this is the time of year to be¬ 
gin, when there are few birds and you 
will not be confused by numbers and 
great variety; when foliage is gone and 
they are easier to see. 
Did you ever feel a lack of interest on 
the part of your pupils? Here is a sub¬ 
ject that will excite intense interest al¬ 
ways. 
There is a special reason why every 
boy should become a bird student. To 
make him a bird student makes him a 
bird lover while if he is thoughtless 
about birds he is apt to be a very de¬ 
structive enemv. 
%> 
Teachers in the country should be 
foremost in this work and instead are 
extremely hindmost. It is the country 
boy who kills birds, partly in a natural 
spirit of destructiveness and partly be¬ 
cause he has a notion that almost every 
bird is a fruit destroyer, a bud eater, or a 
chicken thief. The facts that have been 
established by the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture as to the economic 
value of birds should confront the farmer 
boy and the farmer as well perhaps. 
Some Pertinent Opinions on Cats. 
To the list of noxious animals we 
might add with benefit the domestic cat 
which undoubtedly destroys many of our 
birds, both game and small birds. Un¬ 
fortunately, however, the cat is too 
strongly entrenched in the affections of 
the people at large and the only way to 
deal with this bird destrover is by a dose 
of lead properly administered when 
Tabby or Thomas is caught far enough 
from home,—a practice conscientiously 
followed by many.— Thos. Aspinwall in 
Forest and Stream. 
My children’s favorite pet, a beautiful 
white cat, repays its board-bill, perhaps 
many times, by protecting against the 
birds the insects so necessary to the gar¬ 
den’s welfare. Clearly my first-hand 
studies of insects and cats do not lead me 
to follow Dr. Hodge in preaching their 
wholesale destruction.— Prof. John Dear- 
nusin Nature Study Review , Normal School , 
London, Ont. 
The foremost place among all song bird 
destroyers must be assigned to the house 
cat, this half-wild beast of the woods that 
climbs roofs as well as trees and never 
learns to distinguish between birds and 
mice. All cats prowling about in fields, 
woods, and parks should be killed. 
They are nefarious bird slayers, that use 
human habitations as the base of their 
operations.— Dr. Lange, Lnstructor in 
Nature Study, St. PauVs Schools, in U 0ur 
Native Birds N 
Will vou look up the matter of your 
subscription to the Wayside? We can 
not very well afford to send papers to 
subscribers in arrears. It would take 
too large a per cent, of our subscription 
price. We know our subscription price 
is ridiculously small, but we are glad to 
get it just the same. 
