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B Y THE WA YSIDE 
60 
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. 
A Feti> Figures. 
It is estimated that insects cause and 
an amount of damage amounting to 
$800,000,000 yearly,—that each toad as a 
destroyer of insects is worth $17.87 
vearlv to a gardener. An insect-eating 
bird will destroy at least three times as 
many insects. 
Fully three-fourths of our birds are 
reported as decreasing in numbers. And 
the indifference—or hostility—of man is 
the reason for it. 
; . ; i . I ■ 
.. 7 . v > . 
The Friendliest Bird. 
Next, you may see the friendliest bird 
in the woods, if he lives, at all in your 
vicinity,—the chickadee. He will feed 
from your bounty on the window-sill, 
within a foot of your face. He will perch 
on vour thumb while feeding from your 
palm; he will .even venture inside if the 
window is,raised. He will repay a thou- 
sand-fold any trouble^ in preparing the 
lunch counter or. the. gpib-bag, Downy 
is also likely to. be an early and a very 
regular patron. How energetic and busi- 
nesslike he is! 
He prefers his suet on the tree. He 
always alights right-end up, while chick¬ 
adee isn't at all particular; right-side up 
or wrong-side up is all the same to him. 
If downy strikes the tree above the suet, 
he backs down to it in little jumps. 
When he reaches it. he does’nt sit still 
at his meal. Rat-tat-tat-tat. off comes a 
nice morsel; then he bobs first to one 
side, then to the other as though he were 
playing peek-a-boo around the tree. 
Rat-tat-tat-tat, more morsel and more 
peek-a-boos to the end of the meal. 
—Prof. I. N. Mitchell, Milwaukee 
State Normal School, in Wisconsin Jour¬ 
nal of Education. 
If you have not already put up nest¬ 
ing-boxes do it now or your labor is likely 
to be in vain, except in the case of the 
Wrens who ask no questions and will 
cheerfully adapt to their needs a home 
large enough for an Owl by cramming it 
full of twigs and then squeezing their 
nest into one corner. The W ren is a 
most comfortable bird in spite of its rest¬ 
lessness and quick temper, for it has no 
tradition in the matter of architecture. 
An old shoe, a mitten, a torn hat, a skull, 
or a neat house with piazza and over¬ 
hanging eaves are all the same to it. 
With other birds the case is different and 
the imitation fence-post or hollow limb 
must be in place before the first Blue¬ 
bird, Tree Swallow or Chickadee thinks 
of mating, while I firmly believe that 
the Woodpeckers and Screech Owls en- 
gage their quarters the fall before and 
occupy them on winter nights.—Mabel 
Osgood Wright in Bird Lore. 
Bradford Torrey, in those charming 
essavs, ‘'The Clerk of the Woods’’ de- 
scribes a device that has afforded him a 
great deal of pleasure in watching the 
antics of some gvmastic chickadees. A 
small, loosely knit or crocheted bag made 
of darning cotton was filled with nut- 
meats, and passed by a long string out 
over the top sash of the window, so as to 
hang against the glass below. 
