BY THE WAYSIDE 
21 
SCHOOL BRANCH DEPARTMENT 
Every Wisconsin School Branch is required to subscribe for at least one copy of BY THE WAYSIDE 
Letters for this department should be written on only 
one side of the page, should give the name, age and ad¬ 
dress of the writer, and should be mailed by the first of 
the month: Illinois children sending to Miss Mary Drum¬ 
mond, 208 West St,. Wheaton III., and Wisconsin children 
to Miss Edna Edwards, Appleton, Wis. An honor badge 
will be awarded for each state every month, preference 
being given to letters about the bird study for the month 
(which is always on this page) and to original observa¬ 
tions. Any child wh) wins the honor badge twice will 
receive By the Wayside one year as a prize. 
Thewr-n button, which is the badge of the Audubon 
Socie'V costs two cents and may be bought from Miss 
Mary Drummond or Miss Edwards 
I Any Wisconsin School Branch may, without expense, 
have the use of the G ardon and Mer ill Libraries of bird 
books, by a j plyin ' to Mtss S >p iia Schaefer, Librarian, 
67D No th street Appleton 
A set of c do ed b rd slides with a typewritten lecture 
ma be rented from Pr f. W. S. Marshall, 114 E. Gorham 
S'reet, Madison Wis. 
Illinois Schoo's may use without expense, a library 
or a ecture with lantern slides, by applying to E. S. 
Adams, 439 Elm Street, Chicago 
Bird of the Month. 
Vesper Sparrow, grass finch, or bav- 
winged bunting, is one of our common 
country birds. We have all seen him 
flying over the open fields flapping his 
two white tail feathers as a sign of his re¬ 
treat. As he sits on the fence, or feeds 
on the plowed field, or along the road he 
looks, to the casual observer, like an 
English sparrow, song sparrow, a field 
sparrow, but when he flies or sings we 
know better. His song is soft and sweet 
and is often confused with the song spar¬ 
row’s, for like that bird he sits on a tree 
for half an hour at a time, alternately 
singing and resting. They come in April; 
in May they build their nests upon the 
ground and by the end of June they 
have hatched their speckled eggs and 
turned their young out upon the world 
so that they can feed and play until 
November, when thev start for the south. 
E. L. E. 
_ 
Mauston, Wis., June 8, 1908. 
Dear Wayside: 
As I was coming in from the country, 
Sunday, May the thirty-first, I was walk¬ 
ing slowly, as the day was very warm 
and I was looking for birds. I saw a 
scarlet tanager in the middle of the road; 
I stopped to see what he was doing when 
he flew into the wood near the road, and 
all I could see of him was a red ball. 
He soon lit in a tree not very far from 
the road. I walked into the wood near 
the tree where he was, and was looking 
up at him, and he hopped down to an¬ 
other limb near a neat little nest, and a 
greenish-colored bird flew off the nest. 
I knew that was his mate. I climbed up 
the tree but the nest was out on a little 
limb so I couldn’t get to it. I climbed 
up the tree a little higher and saw two 
light blue eggs with black spots on the 
large end. I then came down the tree, 
and went on home. 
Yours truly, 
Henry Underwood. 
Mauston, Wis., June 8, 1908. 
Dear Wavside: 
One day I told Miss Bond, our teacher, 
that I ven 7 seldom saw birds because I 
lived upstairs down town. 
Mildred Tate, a friend of mine, said, 
•‘Well, I tell you, if you come over to our 
house I will show you some little flick¬ 
ers in their nest. Come over this noon.’’ 
I told her that I would come. 
Mildred had lived upstairs down town, 
too. When they moved on the ground 
where there were trees and places one 
would probably see birds, she was de¬ 
lighted. When at school, we would be 
talking about birds, Mildred would say, 
“Yes sir! I saw'some .of those birds in 
our back yard.” We would laugh at her 
