BY THE WAYSIDE 
15 
the question being, Resolved, that the 
Sparrow should be protected. The affir¬ 
mative was supported by Paul Greibe 
and Albert Pfeiffer. The negative was 
supported by Adolph Buscher and I. 
We did not have any judges so we did 
not know which side won. Although I 
did debate against the Sparrow, it is no 
sign that I do not like the Sparrow. 
For my sake the Sparrow may live and 
eat his food in peace. 
Many recitations we had on our enter¬ 
tainment were about birds. My father 
gave a talk on Audubon and the birds. 
My father was down at New Orleans, 
the birthplace of Audubon. He went 
past Audubon Park and a great surprise 
took place there. He heard a mocking 
bird sing for the first time in his life. 
The songs of the birds outside made 
us think of having more music in the 
school, so the proceeds of the entertain¬ 
ment were used for a piano. I will 
send you a program of the Franklin 
Audubon Society entertainment. 
Yours respectfully, 
Aged 10. Cordelia Grether. 
Mauston, Wis., April 80, 1909. 
Dear Wayside: 
One day last summer as I was going 
through the woods, I heard a funny 
noise. I looked up, but I couldn’t see 
anything. I went a little farther in 
the woods and I heard it again. Then 
I thought I would look around again 
and see. Pretty soon I heard a flutter¬ 
ing and a low cry; I looked and saw 
two birds fighting. 
I watched them for a minute just to 
see what they were going to do,, and if 
they got too bad I would drive them 
apart. I just had to watch them for a 
second, then I saw all I wanted to. It 
was a Butcher-bird and a little Pewee. 
Butcher-birds are one of the meanest 
birds there are. The Butcher-bird took 
the bird it was fighting with in its claws 
and flew away. The Butcher-bird had 
killed the Pewee and was going to take 
it away and hang it on a thorn bush or 
a barbwire fence. 
I went to see what it was going to do 
with it, and instead of putting it on a 
fence or bush it went and took it to its 
nest. Its nest was a dirty.looking nest 
and it had five little birds in it. 
I will describe the Butcher-bird to 
you. It has a gray back or slate color, 
and a part of its wing was gray. Its 
tail was black, and it had a black stripe 
running from his bill to the back part 
of its back. Its breast is a lighter gray 
than the back. Its claws were sharp 
and quite large. I think most of you 
have seen this bird, but I don’t want to 
see it do what it did that day. 
Your friend, 
Lillian Chadwick. 
Franklin, Wis., May 27, 1909. 
Dear Wayside: 
As I was walking into the fields I 
heard some birds. I looked and saw 
some Goldfinches. When they saw me 
they flew away. They did not fly far 
away, but sat right down again. They 
sat on some old weeds and ate the seeds. 
This shows that the Goldfinch eats very 
many weed seeds. Another time as I 
was walking along the road I heard a 
bird sing. It was a small bird and 
looked very much like a Oriole, only it 
was much smaller. I could not find 
out what kind of a bird it was. It also 
was eating weed seeds. I have also seen 
some Orioles this summer. They were 
sitting on a tree and picking. There is 
