56 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
rest was black with a little white on the 
rum)) and a whie breast. It has a queer 
nest. It has its nest in the yard back of 
our barn. It is a round hole in an old 
oak tree. It curves a little so that the 
rain will not get in. I saw him the next 
day. He was gathering things from the 
ground. He was gathering strings and 
old twigs which had fallen on theground. 
The woodpecker is good for one rea¬ 
son. He gets the worms out of the trees 
that kill the trees. The female lays from 
four to five eggs. The woodpecker is 
about the size of a robin. It is very sel¬ 
dom that you see it in February. His 
regular time is the last of April or first 
of May. This red-headed woodpecker 
has made his home here for two years. 
Aged 12. Hazel G. Dean. 
Waldo, Wis., January 2, 1909. 
Dear Wayside: 
One day we were walking along in the 
country close beside a barb-wire fence. 
All at once a bird flew from one of the 
posts and lit in the next one. It sat on 
the post and scolded us. When we went 
up to the post it flew from, it came right 
up close to us and scolded. We climbed 
up and looked into the top of the post, 
and down inside was her nest. Then 
we went away and let her go back to her 
nest. 
Nina King. 
Mazomanie. Wis. 
Dear Wayside: 
I have some rabbits at home. One 
day I walked up the road a ways to get 
some sumachs for them. On my walk I 
heard some birds chattering near by. 
When I looked up in an evergreen I saw 
some little birds which looked like rubv- 
crowned kinglets. The ruby-crowned 
kinglet is a small bird about three and 
one-half inches long. It has a gray 
breast, and a little streak of yellow on its 
wing. It has a red spot on its head. 
Aged 10. Eleanor Parrel. 
Waldo, Wis., January 2, 1909. 
Dear Wayside: 
One day last spring I was out in the 
woods with a friend of mine looking for 
arbutus. We were going through a place 
where there were lots of bushes, and heard 
a bird scratching in the leaves. We 
couldn’t see it very well so we went up 
closer. It heard us, I guess, for it flew 
up into one of the bushes. We kept real 
still and pretty soon it came back where 
we could see it. It was about as large 
as a robin, but its tail was longer. It 
was black above, and on its throat and 
light colored underneath. On its side it 
was a reddish brown. We asked our 
teacher about it the next day, and she 
said it was a chewink. 
Clare Johnson. 
Continued from page 51. 
more than ever surprised to see such a 
visitor. It was just this morning I saw 
some comparisons in temperature of yes¬ 
terday’s mark, and the coldest weather 
of the past decade. In Madison yester¬ 
day was the coldest snap we have felt in 
three years. And then the robin! 
If one should say, “What do you think 
I saw 7 to-dav?” how many w r ould think of 
answering, “A Robin”? The incident 
was so unusual that I thought you might 
consider it w 7 orthy of mention in By the 
Wayside. In 1907 I recorded bluebirds 
by the latter part of February,—the 26th 
I think—but January 7th is the best 
date [ ever had for a robin. 
Undoubtedly the explanation of the 
robin's appearance here is that he was 
driven from some sheltered nook farther 
north by the cold wave. Occasionally a 
red-winged blackbird is recorded here in 
the winter and once even a smamp spar¬ 
row 7 was shot in Milwaukee county about 
this time. But these are all freaks of 
nature—the exceptions that prove the 
rule. 
Sincerely, 
Frederick S. Brandenburg. 
