B Y THE WA YSIDE 
22 
and tease her about the wonderful things 
she saw in her back yard. 
I went over to her home that noon and 
she came running out and we went over 
to see the flickers. They were in a hole 
in a branch of a tree. 
When we came up, the flicker had his 
head out of the hole, but he dodged back 
again. After a while, I suppose he 
thougflt we were gone, he stuck his head 
out again. He looked all around and 
we got a fine view of him. The flicker 
in the hole of the branch would make a 
beautiful picture. The branch had been 
cut off* so it had turned gray. The hole 
was almost perfectly round. The flicker 
looked for a minute as though he was 
looking for some one. I said to Mildred, 
u Why don’t we see the young ones? I 
wonder where they are.” 
Mildred said, “My goodness! he is the 
young one himself. There is another one 
here some place.” 
He looked different from the old ones. 
His head was between a gray and a black 
color. It was more black than gray. 
Under his chin on each side of his bill 
he had a brown spot. Below each of his 
eyes he had a brown spot too. We 
could n’t see any more of him. 
The tree that the flickers are in is in 
front of Dr. Hess’ home. Mrs. Hess said 
that they have been coming there for two 
or three years. I shall watch and see if 
they come back next year. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 12. Elizabeth Loomis. 
Mauston, Wis., June 9, 1908. 
Dear Wayside: 
Saturday as I was cleaning the front 
porch a bird flew from the vines. I 
looked in the vines and discovered the 
neatest little nest with four eggs in it. I 
did not try to see what color the eggs 
were, for I did not want to disturb the 
nest and I want them to hatch their 
young. Soon the mother bird came 
back to the nest. Then after a while 
the father bird came and put a worm in 
the mother bird’s mouth. I went into 
the house and got some crumbs and put 
them on the posts. At night I looked 
on the post and the crumbs were gone. 
So I put some more out. 
When I would go near the vines the 
bird would look down but it would not 
fly away. I guess it knew I was not 
going to hurt it. 
I looked at the bird close bv and found 
out that it was a chipping sparrow. 
These birds are very tame. I hope next 
year they will come and build their nest 
in the vines again. 
Yours truly, 
Esther Rohde. 
Mauston, Wis., June 7, 1908. 
Dear Wayside: 
I have seen several birds this year, 
and now I am going to tell you about 
them. Early this spring I saw r robins, 
bobolinks, meadow larks, woodpeckers, 
song sparrows, kingfishers, bank swallows, 
quails, hawks, owls, crows, bluebirds, 
scarlet tanagers, goldfinches, catbirds, 
humming birds, grosbeaks, red-winged 
blackbirds, and Baltimore orioles. 
The kingfisher is not a pretty bird, but 
is very homely. Its song is not so ele¬ 
gant as it might be. The kingfisher’s 
bill is very big. Its bill is so big that 
you might think it would overbalance 
him. Its bill is about two and one-half 
inches long. Around its throat and 
under its chin is white. Its stomach is 
