BY THE WAYSIDE 
4fi 
saw a bluejay robbing a woodpecke.rs 
nest. It ate the eggs and while it was 
eating them the woodpecker came dy¬ 
ing at it. Then they began to fight. 
The woodpecker peeked the blue jay's 
eye out. The bluejay could not see it 
and it flew to the ground, but the wood¬ 
pecker would not give up. Then I 
chased it away. I left the bluejay 
there and went to the house. When 1 
came back it was gone and I never saw 
.it after that. 
Yours truly, 
Mart Redel. 
Harry, Ill., Nov. 25, 1911. 
Mr. Roland E. Kremers, 
1720 Vilas Street, 
Madison, Wis. 
Dear Sir:— 
During the past summer 1 had a rare 
opportunity to study the mocking bird, 
never to my knowledge having seen any 
before, although I have lived on the 
farm and among birds of almost every 
kind native to this section of Illinois. 
These birds seemed to take great de¬ 
light in being near us; especially the 
male bird would come and sit on the 
ridge of the barn, house or buggy-shed 
and sing. And, Oh! the melody! The 
pair appeared quite late in the spring 
and remained until near the latter part 
of August. I was never able to find 
their nest, being afraid I might disturb 
them, and trusting that they might 
come another year if they were well 
treated. When we were out of doors 
they very frequently would come and 
sit on the telephone poles or wires near 
us and begin warbling. 
The bee martin annoyed these birds 
to some extent and we were fearful that 
some cat or dog might find the nest 
since it seemed to be in a low hedge 
Andrew M. Dudley. 
Our Winter Birds; Some Characteristics 
By Victor Kutchin 
If you are feeding.winter birds from 
the apprehension, that if you do not 
feed them they will starve to death, 
you are acting from a kindly, but a 
mistaken belief. They are an un¬ 
doubted survivals of the fittest and are 
well adapted to their environment, or 
they would not be with us today. 
The martality of our winter residents, 
from either starvation or cold or stormy 
weather, is not likely greater than the 
average mortality among our Summer 
visitors. Granting the truth of above, 
the reasons for feeding winter birds 
are still too numerous to mention. Pos¬ 
sibly the best of all is the fact that 
the fierce struggle for subsistence will 
bring them to your door and into your 
hand and you can get to know them 
and their individual cliaraeterists, as 
you rarely or never get to know mi¬ 
grants or summer residents. There is 
an old saying to the effect that; every 
cat is a common gray at night, which 
simply means that the things we 
do not see distinctly look alike. Here 
you have the wise saw, now for the 
modern instance. Chichadees and Nu- 
thatohs associate closely and look so 
much alike that all but bird students 
are constantly confusing their identity, 
yet in nearly all their cliaraeterists they 
are very different. The best that can be 
said for Mr. Nuthatch is that he is a 
good business man, practices the eight 
hour system—eight in the forenoon and 
eight in the afternoon—always show¬ 
ing a thrifty determination to allow 
nothing to escape him. I regret to say 
his table manners could be improved 
upon. It sounds like' slander, but 
truth is ever stranger than fiction, 
and 1 have frequently seen him eating 
