BY THE WAYSIDE 
69 
SCHOOL BRANCH DEPARTMENT 
Q ^ a a I B -_ _ _ _ M m 
Every Wisconsin School Branch is required to subscribe for at least « 
Letters for thl. , . " “ #M °° Py ° f BY ™E WAYSIDE 
and soon after from three to six pale 
blue eggs can be seen. When the young 
are first hatched they look black, but in 
fifteen days they are ready to leave the 
nest and look like the accompanying 
wilf^tufawar ded^r ld8 h^ PPl ' et0n ' ,a ^ S ‘ ^hoSofbadJS 
win Deawarded for each state every month Drpfprpnr. 
The wren button, which is the badge of the Audubon 
S ° Pbia Seh “ , “- Lib -"an, 
A set of colored bird slides with a typewritten lector#* 
maybe rented from Prof W S Marshall nap ecture 
Street, Madison, Wis Marshall, 114 E. Gorham 
nr 11 ! 111 ^# Schoo . 1 ®« ™ a y use - without expense, a library 
f, a ,ec ‘ u n r * , wlth lantern slides, by applying to E S 
Adams, 439 Elm Street, Chicago PP y g to S. 
Bird for the Month. 
It is now time to look for the bluebird, 
even in Wisconsin and I wonder which 
little girl or boy will be the first to see 
one and to write to me about it. It is 
not as common a bird in cities and towns 
as the robin, so few of us realize that it 
comes quite as early to announce the 
spring. When we first see it and it 
lights on some neighboring fence or tree 
to give us a merry spring song of tru-al- 
ly, tru-al-ly, we are glad, for not only do 
we like to hear it, but we want to get a 
good look at it. Now we see that it is 
about seven inches inches long and that 
its back reflects the deep blue of the sky, 
while its breast reflects the reddish- 
browns of the earth. 
The male comes a few days ahead of 
the female, and commences at once to 
nunt for a home. If we put up boxes 
for them the sparrow is apt to take pos¬ 
session and they are hard to drive out, 
so the bluebird, who does not like to 
■■ '..V 
USED BY PERM13SICN OF ATKINSON,' MENTZER * GROVER, C H,CAGO 
picture. The upper part is dark gray 
streaked with white and the under part 
is a light gray spotted with white. It is 
a lucky person who can have a pair of 
these sociable birds for neighbors. With 
gentle and considerate treatment they can 
be made almost tame. 
Edna S. Edwards. 
fight, goes to some quiet place where it 
finds a knot-hole or hollow tree, where 
in early April, they build a nest of grass, 
I want to tell the little readers of the 
Wayside about the youngest bird student 
I ever knew. One cold winter when she 
