334 



Bird - Lore 



different sizes hang on the same tree, and two are often occupied at the same 

 time, according to Herr Schwabe, the head of the von Berlepsch School of Bird 

 Protection. 



Because of their novelty as well as their remarkable success, the shelterwood 

 plantations, with the special pruning of stock bushes for nests, was of particular 

 interest to the writer. The form of these plantations, and the species of plants 

 used in them, are carefully described in the book already referred to ; but sub- 

 sequent experiments have somewhat extended the list there given of plants 

 suitable for pruning. Baron von Berlepsch still prefers Cratcegus oxyacantha to 

 any other thorns for this purpose, but he finds that the common privet {Ligus- 

 trum vulgare) is of value as a stock bush in poor soil under considerable shade, 



THE ANCESTRAL CASTLE FROM THE PARK; ESTATE OF BARON \i(\ liERLEPSCH 



One or more pairs of Moorhens nest about the pond and many other birds in the trees and shrubbery, 



and cavities made in the walls of the castle. 



and that horse-chestnut {Msculus hippocastanum) also does well under larger 

 trees. The yew {Taxus baccata) is also used in similar situations. As a general 

 rule, however, the thorn {Cratcegus oxyacantha) is used for this purpose. After 

 the shelterwood is planted, it is allowed to stand three or four, or even five 

 years, and is then cut down, as described in the book. The effect of this is to 

 make the thorns send up straight shoots from the ground. After two or three 

 years, strong shoots here and there in the plantation are cut off just above 

 several dormant eyes, which, so far as the writer could understand, are to be 

 found in greatest abundance at the point where the growth of about two years 

 previous began. The effect of this pruning is to force out a whorl of new shoots, 

 starting in a generally horizontal direction. The following year, these shoots 

 are cut back to within perhaps a couple of inches of the parent stem, and each 



