My Experience with Von Berlepsch Nest 



ing- boxes 



9 



("hickadecs, and 

 1(1 Great-crested 



breeding there, one pair of Screech Owls, two j^airs 

 probably one pair each of White-bellied Nulhatche; 

 Flycatchers. 



In this country, I have always found that, in the case of non-grcgarious 

 species, there are usually only about so many to a given area. There may be 

 numerous cousins, but each 

 pair of a given species hunts 

 over a given area, to the exclu- 

 sion of others of a given species. 



At Seebach, however, the 

 birds seem to be changing their 

 habits, in order to adapt 

 themselves to the exceptionally 

 favorable conditions that there 

 prevail. 



On our place, particularly 

 in the East Wood, lack of the 

 proper kind of under-brush and 

 coppice and "whorls," which 

 Baron von Berlepsch finds so 

 necessary for nest-building, is, 

 undoubtedly, still somewhat of 

 a deterrent ; though in the 

 West Wood, birds of the un- 

 derbrush, Towhees, Catbirds, 

 and the like are increasing in 

 numbers each year. 



Of food, I am sure that 

 birds on our place have enough 

 both in winter and in summer. 



Squirrels, particularly red 

 ones, besides their destructive- 

 ness in general, seem to be the 

 most important factor in pre- 

 venting occupancy of bird- 

 houses. 



Of the thirty-five nests put up in 1910, nearly all had their entrance holes 

 more or less gnawed, several had been ruined, twenty-five had their contents 

 tampered with, while seven contained red squirrels' nests, two, flying squirrels' 

 nests, and one a litter of grays. 



I ordered no food appliances from abroad, but at once built a food-house, 

 as shown in the plate, which, instead of standing rather clumsily on four legs, 

 is upheld by one central rustic cedar post, set in concrete three feet in the 



IXG ROX OCCUPIED 

 CKER 



