7 
Dear Miss Drummond: 
I will write and tell you how we are 
getting along with our society. We had 
our first society May 8th. We elected 
Orva Benson president, Lester Rand, 
vice president, Norris Berg, treasurer, 
and I am the secretary of the society. 
We were very interested to study about 
birds, so tomorrow we are going to have 
a program about birds. We send our 
bird invitations, which were cut out of 
paper and painted, to our parents. We 
would like to have you here, but we 
know it is impossible. 
We have distributed the badges to the 
children; they were very glad to receive 
them. It is very interesting when we 
are out of doors to be able to tell the 
names of birds. I would like to ask you 
to tell me what kind of a bird it was I 
saw. It was all dark red, nearly brown, 
and about the size of a woodpecker. An¬ 
other bird I saw—it must have been 
killed by a hunter—it was lying dead by 
the side of a fence near a bridge; it was 
a large bird, nearly a whitish color, but 
it was very light blue; it had a long bill 
and long legs. On the top of its head it 
[ had a kind of a cap; it was a very dark 
blue color, and also on its tail and large 
wine's. I will expect a letter from you 
| soon. Yours truly, 
Esmond, Ills. Mabel Schubert. 
This letter was answered by Miss Drum¬ 
mond, to whom it was addressed. Per¬ 
haps the red bird spoken of was the pine 
grosbeak. But it would be hard to tell 
much about the other bird. Possibly it 
was a blue heron. -Ed. 
' 
Adrian, Illinois. 
Miss Mary Drummond: 
We have a very perplexing problem to 
solve, it seems to us. We want to know 
if it is right to kill sparrows or rob their 
55 
nests. I don’t think it is right, and 
neither do the others who do not do it. 
Two of our members have over fifty eggs 
apiece. 
Yours truly, 
Beta Jacks, Secretary. 
Miss Leta mentions a very perplexing 
problem, indeed. There is no doubt 
that the English sparrow is a nuisance. 
They are noisy and quarrelsome, and 
they drive away the other more attractive 
and useful birds. It was a very grave 
mistake to bring them to this country. 
But it is doubtful if it would be well for 
us Audubonites to kill any bird no mat¬ 
ter how great a pest. But what about 
those eggs? Are members of an Audu¬ 
bon Society robbing birds’ nests?-ED. 
Mauston, Wis., May 15, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
This morning in the court yard I saw 
a scarlet tanager. It is about the size of 
a bluebird with a scarlet color all over 
except the wings and tail which are jet 
black. The female is a greenish yellow, 
with olive brown wings. The song is 
something like that of the robin’s, only 
not so sweet. The tanager builds its 
nest in the crotches of the trees. It is a 
very pretty bird. I have seen a great 
many birds this spring and I think the 
tanagers and warblers are about the 
prettiest. 
Aged 13. Nora Tremain. 
Appleton, Wis., Columbus School. 
Dear Wavside: 
One bright sunshiny morning in Feb¬ 
ruary as I arose from my bed, I heard a 
great noise on the roof. I looked out of 
the window to see what it was. After I 
had looked a few moments, I saw him 
fly away. It was the red-headed wood¬ 
pecker. All of his head was red. The 
B Y THE WA YSIDE 
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