BY THE WAYSIDE 
29 
j ' SCHOOL BRANCH DEI PART MB NT 
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- 
mend, 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 
bird study for the month and to original 
observations. 
The wren button which is the badgi 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 
Merrill 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 
slides, by applying to Miss Bunnel, Academy 
of Sciences, Chicago. 
A Task for School Children 
If some of the children who read 
“ l>y the Wayside ’ desire to make their 
wirier study of birds of real value to 
‘science, they may find interest in the 
following suggestions, which may be 
more easily carried out by those who 
live in the country, or in country towns. 
The northern boundary lines, of the 
winter homes of the junco and of the 
tree sparrow are not well known. In 
truth, these lines are to a certain de- 
Igree, changeable ones, as is shown by 
# \ 
'conditions about my home in north¬ 
east ei n Iowa. If the season be a mild 
■ me, a few docks of both species may 
iccasionally be found in sheltered 
Jolaees, all through the winter; but in 
severe winters it is safe to say that all 
I )f them are farther south for two or 
luce months. The date of their return 
varies from the iirst to the middle of 
March, sometimes a little later than the 
niddle. If daily records were kept by 
children who live where these birds can 
be found almost daily, and by other 
children farther north where the birds 
can seldom be seen, and if still other 
children would report their failures to 
find these species, after the first of Jan¬ 
uary until migrants begin returning in 
March, then we shall have more definite 
knowledge on this subject than is pos¬ 
sessed at present. 
Some suggestions for the work are 
given here: On a sheet of paper which 
has spaces for every day in the month, 
keep separate records for the tree spar¬ 
row and junco. When either species is 
seen, put down the number of distinctly 
different places in which it was seen, 
and in another column write about 
how many individual birds of the spe¬ 
cies were seen. It might be very diffi¬ 
cult to tell the exact number seen, but a 
rough estimate of the number is desir¬ 
able. These monthly sheets should be 
carefully saved until spring, then sent 
to Wayside. A better plan would be 
to keep the original sheets and make 
copies of them to send, ’file writer of 
this article will undertake to compile 
these reports for publication in Way- 
side, giving due credit to the workers 
engaged. 
The territory in which it is desirable 
that this work should be done may be in¬ 
dicated in a general way as the southern 
peninsula of Michigan, the southern 
half of Wisconsin, the whole of Iowa, 
and the northern half of Illinois. Are 
there any children willing to take up 
the work? Children of a school could 
unite in the work, which would give by 
far the best results, or children can 
carry it on independently of each other. 
A. R. S. 
