BY THE WAYSIDE 
o 
SCHOOL BRANCH DEPART M ENT _ 
Every Wisconsin School Branch is required to subscribe for at least one copy of BY THE 
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; Illinois writers sending to Miss 
Mary A. Hardman, 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 leaflet on some bird. 
For the best letter each month we will send 
a second leaflet. Preference 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 Fall Migration 
Many times have the editors of By 
the Wayside had something to say 
about the migrations which many of 
our bird friends make twice each year. 
Just last spring we published an excel¬ 
lent article by Prof. King explaining 
some things about them. So often 
have we called attention to these trips 
of the birds that we are almost afraid 
that some of our readers are tired of 
hearing about them, but we hope not. 
To the lover of birds, each succeeding 
migration brings more joy and happi- 
i ness, and more things about which to 
think and marvel. 
H So once again we are venturing to 
say a very few words about the Fall 
-Migration. Why the birds migrate and 
how they acquired the habit we do not 
know; we can only pick out a few sug¬ 
gestions, theories, which seem to ex¬ 
plain what we know to be fact at the 
present day, and what we know of the 
earth’s history. The first question you 
will probably think of, is, how do we 
know that birds migrate? Possibly 
your second thought will be,—oh that 
is a foolish question, why we can see 
that birds migrate, we can see that they 
fly from one place to another. True, 
that was probably the first observation 
which lead people to think about the 
travels of the birds. Then, too, it was 
noticed at a very early date in man’s 
doevelopment, that some birds are not 
to be found the entire year at certain 
places. The Indians for instance, made 
special trips in fall to gather wild rice 
and to shoot ducks; because the ducks 
could not stay in the cold northland 
in winter, and so the Indians had to 
hunt them while they were to be found. 
But these observations do not prove 
that birds migrate in the sense in which 
we now think of their migrating. Just 
because certain birds came in spring 
and left in fall did not mean much 
more than that they hid themselves. In 
the middle ages it was thought that 
birds hibernated in caves in the moun¬ 
tains and in hollow trees. Didn t bears 
hibernate? then why not birds too? so 
reasoned the simple minded people of 
that time. They had even found caves 
in which they saw birds sleeping. This 
surely is a strange statement, for we 
know of no bird that sleeps any length 
of time. But we can explain it for we 
now know that bats were considered 
as birds at that time. 
There were many other queer notions 
in those days. Perhaps this one seems 
the queerest to us, Swallows* they fce- 
