BY TI1E WAYSIDE 
65 
SCHOOL BRANCH DEPARTMENT 
Every Wisconsin School Branch is required to subscribe for at lea t one copy of 3Y THE WAYSIDE 
Letters to this department should be 
written on only one side of the page, should 
give name, age and address of the writer and 
should be mailed by the first of the month; 
Illinois writers sending to Miss Mary Drum¬ 
mond, Spring Lane, Lake Forest, Ill., and 
Wisconsin writers to Mr. Roland E. Krcmers, 
Madison, Wis. To each writer whose letter 
is published will be sent a beautiful colored 
picture of the b.rd of the m nth. For the 
best letter each month we will send “Winter 
Picnics” by Ruth Marshall. Preference will 
>e given to letters about the bird study 
ror the month and to original observations. 
The wren button which is the badg^ of the 
Audubon Society, costs two cents and can be 
bought from Miss Mary Drummond, or Mr. 
Kremers. 
Any Wisconsin society may, by paying 
the express, have the use of the Gordon and 
Herrill Libraries of bird books by applying 
to Mr. Kremers. 
A set of colored bird slides with a type¬ 
written lecture may be rented from Roland 
E, ^ Kremers, 1720 Vilas Street, Madison, 
Wis. Illinois Schools may use, without ex¬ 
pense, a library or a lecture with lantern 
dides, by applying to Miss Bunnel, Academy 
>f Sciences, Chicago. 
The Bird, of the Month 
I 1 am going to ask you to study the 
redpoll this month. In general appear¬ 
ance it resembles the siskin and the gold¬ 
finch in winter plumage. It can al¬ 
ways be identified by its reddish brown 
aown and its little black chin. The call 
the redpoll resembles that of the gold- 
inch, but a distinctly foreign note may 
h e detected which will distinguish it 
i from the call of the latter. 
Illinois Prize Letter 
Carman, Ill., Jan. 25, 1911. 
; Dear Wayside :— 
One night when we were skating w 
saw six or eight little brownish-gra; 
! rirds near the pond. They are bright 
active little birds. And I like to see 
them and to hear them twitter and sing. 
They seem to like to stay together. They 
were nearly six inches long and had a 
cinnamon brownish bunch of feathers on 
their heads, and each had a little dark 
spot on the breast, and a few light 
leathers on the wings. I think they, were 
Tree Sparrows.” They ate many 
weed seeds. When it got dark they 
flew into the thick weeds near a stream 
and slept there all night. We walked 
home by the bushes and four little birds 
flew out when they heard us to see what 
the matter was. 
We put a chalk box on a maple tree 
near the window of our school house, 
and the 11 Downy Woodpecker’” and 
‘‘Chickadee” ate the bread crumbs and 
the meat out of it today. 
Yours truly, 
Fern Dowell. 
Age 11 years. 
Amt erg, Wis., Jan. 27, 1911. 
P E A R AV AYSIDE :- 
There are some queer birds that came 
here. They have brown backs, and a 
red tail. It has a green stripe running 
through its wings. They are a very 
tame bird. They sit on little pines. 
They pick the bark off. They do not 
sing but just cheep. I don’t know what 
kind of bird it is. Will you please tell 
me what kind of bird this is? 
Yours truly, 
Arvid Johnson. 
Age 11. 
