BY THE WAYSIDE 
53 
SCHOOL BRANCH D El P A RTM El N T 
Every Wisconsin School Branch is required to subscribe for at least one copy of BY THE WAYSIDE 
THE BfRD OF THE MONTH 
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; Illi¬ 
nois writers sending to Miss Mary A. Hard¬ 
man, Academy of Sciences, Chicago, Ill., and 
Wisconsin writers to Mr. Roland E. Krtir.ers, 
Madison, Wis. To each writer whose letter 
is published will be sent an illi.strated leaf¬ 
let on some bird. For the best letter t ach 
month we will send a second leaflet. Pre¬ 
ference will be given to letters about the 
bird study f r the month and to original 
observations. 
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. 
Wisconsin parties should apply to the 
University Extension Division, Madison, for 
colored bird slides. Illinois Schools may use, 
without expense, a library or a lecture with 
lantern slides, by applying to Miss BunneT 
Academy of Sciences, Chicago. 
throated sparrows and song sparrows 
j which usually never came nearer the 
house than a block away where there 
| was a considerable thicket. It was the 
evening of the second day of the storm, 
the snowfall had ceased some hours be¬ 
fore ; just at sundown the clouds parted 
in the west, letting in on the dreary 
world a hood of brilliant light. What a 
| cheering sight and how full of promise! 
The birds feeding in the yard were 
touched too and gave vent to their feel¬ 
ings in ecstactic song. And onr family 
rejoiced that the birds of the field had a 
good supper as we did, and certainly 
there was no question in our minds 
whether or not it was* worth the effort to 
I give comfort to our feathered friends. 
We are always glad to receive letters 
from school children, 
The Cowbird 
I was really going to write about the 
Redwinged Blackbird this month, but all 
of our American lovers of nature have 
written about this cheery messenger of 
spring, so that I could find nothing more 
to say. Hence I selected a regular vaga¬ 
bond of a bird, one whom nobody really 
had any love for, and who would certain¬ 
ly not call for any poetic praise. And 
that is the cowbird. There is no mistake 
about it. If he were human, his whole 
tribe would be in the penitentiary most 
of the time. Let us have a look at him. 
lie is a blackbird to start with. Mr. 
Cowbird has head, neck, and breast a 
coffee-brown; the rest of his garb is a 
glossy black, Mrs. Cowbird is a dark 
brownish grey, as if she were wearing 
the cast-off, faded clothes of her husband. 
The children look as shabby as their 
mother. You find members of the tribe 
almost anywhere from Canada to Texas, 
both east and west. And this would be 
the place to tell about the Cowbirds’ 
nest. But, alas there is no nest. 
When other birds are joyously, with 
much or little art, constructing nests to 
house their eggs and young, the cow- 
birds are roaming about the country with 
no set goal, uttering a most unmelodious 
squeak. When eggs must be laid, the 
mother cowbird finds the nest of some 
other birds, such as a yellow warbler, 
and during the absence of the rightful 
owner, deposits her egg therein and 
leaves it to be hatched by the unwilling 
foster mother. 
