BY THE WAYSIDE 
61 
SCHOOL BRANCH DEPARTMENT 
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; Illi¬ 
nois writers sending to Miss Mary A. Hard¬ 
man, Academy of Sciences, Chicago, 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. 
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. 
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 Bunnel* 
Academy of Sciences, Chicago. 
The Bird of the Month. 
The White-throated Sparrow. 
Those of you who have ever spent a 
summer in the woods in the northern 
part of our state, will be sure to know 
one bird song very well. You will 
have heard it long before sunrise, all 
day long, and well into the night. If 
you have the true naturalist’s spirit 
you will have spent much time trying 
to locate its owner. And perhaps you 
will have succeeded;—perhaps. But 
whether or not, the mournful cadence 
of the song will have haunted you long 
after the summer’s end. It goes: 
(slow) “sow wheat, (very fast) Pea¬ 
body, Peabody, Peabody.” And an 
old New England story says the Pea¬ 
body followed the advice, and reaped 
a bounteous harvest. And so the bird 
bears the name, Peabody, which is con¬ 
sidered quite an aristocratic one in 
New England. 
But White Throat is better for it 
helps us to remember his looks. Like 
the White Crowned Sparrow, this one 
also has a white crown, but the male 
also has a pure white chin and throat, 
which in the female is a duller gray. 
There is also a very characteristic yel¬ 
low spot between eye and bill, and 
some yellow on the bend of the wing. 
In the southern part of our state this 
bird is mainly a migrant, going north 
in April and south in October. Then 
we may observe him at his funny feed¬ 
ing habits. Some day you will hear 
among the brushes, a rustling of dead 
leaves as if an animal of some size were 
digging away for dear life. Approach 
carefully, and you will see the White 
Throat, jumping at the rubbish with 
both feet, and thrusting it aside with 
great vigor. The noise he makes about 
it is remarkable, I hope the result’s are 
as great. 
His nest the White Throat builds 
most often on the ground, occasionally 
on a bush, but always well hidden. 
Four or five bluish or greyish white 
eggs, thickly covered with reddish 
brown markings, fine and coarse are 
laid; and often two broods are raised 
during the season. 
In winter the White Throat goes to 
the southern half of our country. 
Coming and going they travel in flocks 
of a dozen or a hundred, feeding along 
hedges, the wayside shrubs, or the edge 
of the woods, and cheering the gray 
landscope with their quaint (to use 
another reading): “Sweet! sweet! 
Canada, Canada, Canada,” 
