BY THE WAYSIDE 
53 
SCHOOL BRANC H DE PARTM El NT 
Every Wisconsin School Branch is required t) 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, a^e 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 ill l. strated 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 badge of the 
Audubon Society, costs t-vo cents and can be 
bought from Mlss Mary Drummond, or Mr. 
Kramers. 
Any Wisconsin society may, by paying 
the express, have the use of the Gordon and 
M rrill 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. Il.inois Schools may use, without ex¬ 
pense, a library or a lecture with lantern 
slides, by applying to Miss Bunnel, Academy 
of Sciences, Chicago. 
The Loggerhead Shrike. 
Everyone knows the Shrike as a bird 
of prey, feeding not only upon such 
things as grasshoppers and mice but 
upon small birds as well. Everyone 
knows too, that he is not particular 
about the kind of bird, so long as it is 
| not large enough lo defend itself suc¬ 
cessfully against him. Until this year 
I have not seen the Shrike in Wau¬ 
watosa, in winter time. This season, 
} however, he has twice made his pres¬ 
ence known in an unusual manner. 
About noon on December 18th, my at¬ 
tention was called to our Canary who 
was calling loudly and fluttering about 
in his cage in a very excited manner. 
Looking for the cause of the disturb¬ 
ance, 1 was surprised to see a Logger- 
head Shrike hovering on the outside of 
! the window directly in front of the 
bird. Soon he flew to one side and sat 
on the fence for a little while. Back 
he came, fluttered in front of the bird 
again for a short time, then flew to 
the other side of the window and sat 
in a tree. Then back he came, and 
again and yet again, for what seemed 
at least fifteen minutes. On the after¬ 
noon of January 13th, during a bliz¬ 
zard, my attention was again attracted 
to our canary, and I witnessed a repeti¬ 
tion of what happened on December 
18th. Whether it was the same Shrike 
of another, will never be known. 1 
tremble to think of the probable fate 
of the canary had not the window-pane 
separated him from his would-be assas¬ 
sin or assassins. 
Esther Adkle Tennyson, 
263 Ivenvon Ave., 
t,' 7 
Wauwatosa Wis. 
Monticello, Ill. 
To the Wayside;—- 
Dear Friends: 1 have been inter¬ 
ested in birds for four years. Last 
June I organized a society with twen¬ 
ty-five regular members. 
We have a chairman, treasure, secre¬ 
tary and teacher. We meet the last 
Saturday of each month and have very 
successful meetings. 
We are going to take up the Audu¬ 
bon course. 
1 keep a bird calendar and have seen 
one hundred and six birds from Jan¬ 
uary 12th, 1911, to January 12, 1912. 
I advise every one to keep a bird calen¬ 
dar for it is very interesting. 
I am ten years old. 
Yours Truly, 
William T. Dighton. 
