38 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
ni) r favorite bird. The male is a rich, 
azure blue; throat and under parts chest¬ 
nut; ends of quills blackish. Its length 
is to from six to seven inches. The fe¬ 
male is a blue color mixed with dull 
reddish brown, becoming bright and pure 
on tail and wings. Its under parts are 
rusty brown. It is smaller than the male. 
In the summer it lives in Eastern United 
States, and in the winter in the southern 
states. It returns in the spring. It has 
a very melodious song. It lays from four 
to six eggs, and lays from two to three 
times during the year. It builds its nest 
in trees, posts or bird boxes. The male 
sits close by and sings while the female 
hunts for food. 
Ethel Rose. 
birds which we did not know. V\ e have 
learned about the usefulness of birds and 
can tell them by the color and their 
songs. The killdeer, mourning-dove, 
pigeons, bluebird, robin, bluejay, crow, 
bobolink, humming-bird, meadowlark, 
scarlet tanager, blackbird, oriole, sparrow, 
woodpecker, owl, prairie chicken, cow- 
bird, chicken-hawk, catbird, kingbird, 
canary, brown thrasher, and butcher 
bird, are some of the birds around here. 
In our school the bovs have made 
three bird boxes. Two of them are made 
out of chalk boxes, and the third is made 
from a box. It is something like a house. 
I do not know if there are any nests 
made yet, but birds go into them. 
Clara Gabrielson. 
McLean, Ill.. Mav 29, 1908. 
Dear Miss Drummond: 
I received your letter. I liked that 
paper very much. I liked the colored 
picture very much, that was in the paper. 
Thank you for sending the paper. It 
had a great many nice stories about birds 
in it. The paper was very nice to read. 
In that other letter I meant to say that 
the boys must not rob the bluejay eggs, 
because the bluejay is a very nice bird. 
There is a Baltimore oriole around our 
place. They are building a nest in our 
apple tree. They are very nice birds and 
pretty. They build a hanging nest. 
Yours sincerely, 
Iva May Sutter. 
If you are very busy that you cannot 
answer this letter just send me a postal 
card once in a while. 
Mauston, Wis., June 9, 1908. 
Dear Wayside: 
Last Sunday as I was out by the house 
I saw 7 a pair of goldfinches. They were 
picking up some straw in the yard. 
When they got all they could carry they 
would fly away with it. I watched to 
see where they went and I found that 
they went into the hedge of arbor vitae. 
Then, when they put that straw down they 
w 7 ould fly down and get some more and 
they kept on until they had quite a lot 
of straw. I think they were going to 
build a nest in the hedge. I saw two 
more goldfinches this morning and 1 
think they were the same ones. The 
goldfinch has black wings and the rest 
is yellow. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 13. Louise Wilson. 
Woodstock, Ill., May 29, 1908. 
Miss Drummond: 
We have received the leaflets which 
vou sent us. We were glad to get them, 
and have learned many things about the 
Mauston, Wis., June 9, 1908. 
Dear Wayside:— 
One day while I was down by the 
depot another boy and I saw a sparrow's 
nest. The railroad company does not 
