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BY THE WAYSIDE 13 
SCHOOL BRANCH DEPARTMENT 
Every Wisconsin School Branch is required to subscribe for at least one copy of BY 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. Kremers, 
Madison, Wis. To each writer whose letter 
is published will be sent an illustrated leaf¬ 
let on some bird. For the best letter each 
month we will send a second leaflet. Pre¬ 
ference will be given to letters about the 
urd study for the month and to original 
ibservations. 
The wren button which is the badga of the 
4udubon Society, costs two cents and can be 
>ought from Miss Mary Drummond, or Mr. 
fremers. 
Any Wisconsin society may, by paying 
.he express, have the use of the Gordon and 
Vlerrill Libraries of bird books by applying 
:o Mr. Kremers. 
A set of colored bird slides with a type- 
vritten lecture may be rented from Roland 
Kremers, 1720 Vilas Street, Madison, 
>Vis. Illinois Schools may use, without ex- 
>ense, a library or a lecture with lantern 
lides, by applying to Miss Bunnel, Academy 
f Sciences, Chicago. 
Winter Feeding 
It is not too early to Degin to think 
j bout hew you are going to feed the 
>irds this winter. Some food ought to 
j e provided before October is past. If 
: °°d is put out early, it might be pos- 
! ible to attract some birds which usually 
j o farther south. 
The easiest way to feed birds is to 
| lake a shelf on some tree trunk or near 
window. On this shelf put some lumps 
j f suet and some bread crumbs, or some 
Lorn, millet, sun-flower seeds, or some 
j ther seeds or grain. A little dish of 
r ater will be very welcome to the birds 
inch may come to your lunch-counter. 
When you have made your feeding- 
jlielf, keep close watch of what birds 
| omo to feed, the time of the day when 
tiey are most seen, and what they eat. 
Do not let the English Sparrows feed at 
the shelf any oftener than you can pre¬ 
vent them, because they drive other 
birds away. Do not let any cat harm 
the birds that come to eat. Above all, 
keep a regular supply of food, especially 
in bad weather, lest the birds starve be¬ 
cause you have failed to supply them 
with food when they need it most. The 
subject for next month’s letters will be, 
“ What I have done to feed the birds.” 
To the Teachers :— 
One of the easiest ways of interesting 
your pupils in their school-life is to 
bring some natural-history into their 
studies. For example, you can show 
the pupils a picture of a well known 
bird and discuss with the pupils its col¬ 
oration, habits and migration. This dis¬ 
cussion should then be made the basis 
for an exercise in composition. The re¬ 
sult would be, that, in nine cases out of 
ten, the pupils would not look upon the 
written exercise as something disagree¬ 
able, but, furthermore, would be doubly 
gainers in that they would be more ob¬ 
servant of the wild life round about 
them. 
The life-history of a moth or butter¬ 
fly is a very interesting subject for 
study. The life-cycle is briefly this: 
The adult female lays the fertilized egg; 
the egg develops into the larva. After 
the larva has fed and grown sufficiently, 
it spins its cocoon and is then known as 
the nymph, pupa, or chrysillis. During 
the pupa stage a transformation of the 
animal takes place. When this is com¬ 
pleted, the larva has become an adult 
moth or butterfly as the case may be, 
