58 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
bask in the sun close to them. Audu¬ 
bon relates that he reared and tamed a 
wild turkey which always ran away from 
anv strange dog; this bird escaped into 
the woods, and some days afterwards 
Audubon saw, as he thought, a wild 
turkey, and made his dog chase it; but, 
to his astonishment, the bird did not run 
awav, and the dog, when he came up, 
did not attack the bird,for they recognised 
each other as old friends." 
Bird Breakfast Club. 
In a town not far from Chicago some 
“grown-ups” who are interested in birds 
have organized a society that is known 
as the “Bird-Breakfast Club.” One small 
boy who heard about it was very indig¬ 
nant and said he thought it was a shame 
to make a breakfast of little birds, so I 
must hasten to explain that the bird- 
breakfasters do not eat little birds, do 
not even have them on the table, but let 
them stay in the trees and bushes and 
look at them with opera glasses and field 
glasses. 
Everybody who belongs to this club 
must be interested in birds. Now a great 
many people think they are interested 
in birds when they are really not. And 
as people who join societies and find out 
afterwards that they are not interested in 
the thing the society is organized for are 
such a nuisance, the founders of the Bird- 
Breakfast Club very wisely thought of a 
way to keep them out. All the meetings 
of the club begin at four o'clock in the 
morning. It is surprising what a good 
test of one’s interest that four o’clock 
scheme is! There is no chance to strag¬ 
gle in late to meeting either, Everybody 
is notified beforehand at whose house 
the meeting begins , but only the leader of 
the club knows where it will continue. 
Everybody who is on hand ten minutes 
early gets a cup of hot coffee and a sand¬ 
wich. Promptly at four o’clock the com¬ 
pany starts out to follow the leader, for a 
two or three mile walk or ride, to some 
promising bushy field near a stream of 
water. I forgot to say that this meeting 
is always held during the second week of 
May, when all the little birds, that make 
their summer home between Illinois and 
the Arctic oc^an, are looking for a break¬ 
fast in the bushy fields around Chicago. 
Perhaps you do not know that during 
the migration season birds eat onlv one 
meal a day, and that is breakfast. The 
Bird-Breakfast Club found this out. The 
name of the club really ought to be the 
Birds ’ Breakfast Club. That is, the break¬ 
fast belongs to the birds, not to the club. 
If vou never went to a birds’ breakfast 
in May, you would be surprised to find 
what a large and distinguished company 
it is. The bushes are full. And such 
beautiful costumes! Every bird saves 
his very best feathers all the vear for this 
May breakfast festival. And such col¬ 
ors! Summer yellow, orange throated 
orange, goldfinch gold, pale robin's egg 
blue, deep indigo bunting blue, redbird 
red, scarlet tanager scarlet, chestnut¬ 
sided chestnut, bronze grackle bronze, 
with the jauntiest of black caps, the dain¬ 
tiest of yellow throats, and real swallow¬ 
tails. And with all this elegance of dress 
go many distinguished names: Maryland 
Yellowthroat, Connecticut warbler, Vir¬ 
ginia rail, New York water thrush, Ken- 
tuck v warbler and Tennessee warbler. 
