u; 
BY TIIE WAYSIDE 
J\ly Swallows. 
Once upon a time I built a bird house. 
1 put it on the barn and put some bay 
in it and made a little nest. 
About a week after I built the nest 
two little swallows came, they flew 
around the little house and at last they 
went in. The father bird pulled nearly 
all the straw out, and when I looked at 
them they flew around the other side. 
I then took some more straw and laid 
it by the house. Then I went in the 
house and got some water and bread 
for them to eat and then I went into the 
house to watch them. 
The birds came back and put the 
straw, that I put by there nest, in the 
house and built a neat little nest and 
then got some of the bread and water. 
In about two weeks I looked in the 
house to see if there were any eggs and 
I saw fcur little eggs in the nest. 
Then I went into the house to see 
which way the mother bird came and I 
saw that she came from a tree near the 
barn. The next week I saw the father 
bird take some food in the nest. 
Later the father and mother went 
away and then I went to look in the 
nest. I saw four little birds in it. Af¬ 
ter while the mother and father bird 
taught the little birds how to by and 
they went away and never came again. 
The next year some birds came back 
again and had some little birds. 
Myrtle B. Snow, 
4th Grade Hart, Mich. 
Aged 10. 
These birds were unusually numer¬ 
ous during the last two aa eoks of 
March at Madison as well.—Ed. 
AVe have the following note from Mr. 
A. C. Burrill, Instructor in Economic 
Entomology at the University of Wis¬ 
consin. li On September IS, 1012, a 
flock of sixty crows had gathered on 
the recent sowing of rye, about three 
weeks old, on the farm of C. A\ . Rey¬ 
nolds near Tomah, Wisconsin. Air. 
Reynolds 7 son and I went immediately 
over to investigate. We found 
t lie 
marks of their feet and bills, but no 
evidence of their pulling rye; instead, 
Ave discovered that they were probing 
for the roots of weeds, chiefly milk¬ 
weed, which had been plowed under, 
and this to secure the white grubs. 
All honor to Air. Crow in helping the 
farmer to get rid of his field pests. 7 
In the vicinity of Madison the 
“grubs, 77 the larvae of the June Bug, 
were unusually numerous and destruc¬ 
tive during the past summer. An in¬ 
cident similar to the above came to our 
attention also. A certain farmer be¬ 
gan to plow under a hay field which 
liiwi hppn mined bv the nest. The nexl 
morning AA T e AA T ere awakened by what 
Ave at first supposed to be a caAving 
match on the part of the crows of the 
neighborhood. They were not very 
numerous. We saw on the average per¬ 
haps ten in a day. We were soon dis¬ 
illusioned, for all the din aauis but the 
summons for the clan to gather; and 
gather it did. .For an hour or more 
eroAVS straggled in in small groups and 
helped spread the summons. When at 
last all the crows in the country seA- 
eral miles around had assembled, the 
entire flock of least a hundred individ¬ 
uals alit on the field and fed on the 
“grubs. 77 When satiated they Avouhl 
fly into trees near by, only to return 
again and again. Thus they contin¬ 
ued for several days, gradually dis¬ 
persing. —Ed. 
