THE BIRD DEPARTMENT 



149 



end of the season the old nest can be thrown out or left 

 in, it making little difference to the birds when they 

 return the following spring. The lice which often infest 

 the nests of wrens are harmless and die soon after the 

 young leave. 



BIRD HOUSES AND FORESTRY 



Mention was made above of the estate of Baron Von 

 Berlepsch, where over 90 per cent of a thousand boxes 

 have been occupied by birds. He has experimented, like- 



A WREN TAKING FOOD TO ITS YOUNG 



This box measures 4x5x7^ inches, and is about the right size for 

 wrens or chickadees. Great care should be taken to see that it is 

 properly placed. The boxes should be at least twenty-five feet apart, 

 as native birds are not socially inclined toward other hole-nesting 

 species, and drive away others who trespass upon their preserves. 



wise, in planting the shrubbery most attractive to birds 

 for nesting sites (such as hawthorns and berry bushes) 

 and has pruned young trees so as to increase the number 

 of available sites. In this way and by keeping down 

 the numbers of bird enemies and by feeding the birds 

 in winter he has been able so to increase the numbers of 

 birds nesting on his estate that when all the adjacent coun- 

 try was swept by a plague of insects, his estate was the 

 one green spot on the landscape. So convincing was 

 the demonstration of what was possible in the way of 



protecting the forests by attracting and increasing bird 

 life that the German government adopted his method, and 

 now there are in every forest numbers of bird houses and 

 food shelters. Many species that did not at first use the 

 boxes have learned to do so and each year the offspring 

 hatched in the boxes are continuing and strengthening 

 the newly formed habit. In this country similar experi- 

 ments are being started and many estates now boast of 

 hundreds of nesting boxes inhabited each year by an 

 increasing number of these indispensable guardians of 

 the forests. 



BIRD LIFE IN MARCH 



March is the month of awakening. The snows melt, 

 patches of green appear and spring is in the air. Not the 

 spring that speaks of summer at hand, but hours of 

 promise and days of disenchantment. But the long siege 

 of winter is over and man and the animals feel the 

 impulse to move. It is now that that mysterious instinct 

 to migrate begins its powerful sway in the realm of 

 birds, that instinct which impels many species to travel 

 thousands of miles and gives no rest until the journey is 

 accomplished. 



Some species have not retired far south and when 

 the instinct is aroused, it drives them close behind the 

 receding snows. The horned larks came back in Febru- 

 ary, the robins and bluebirds follow the first warm days 

 of March, and soon will come the blackbirds and grackles. 

 The geese go honking northward when they know the 

 wheat fields are bared and the lakes once more open, 

 and following in their wake are the phoebe, meadowlark 

 and killdeer. Before the month has run its course the 

 Northern States will echo with the rattling call of the 

 kingfisher and the sweet notes of the mourning dove 

 and white-throated sparrow, while the Southland will 

 begin to welcome the more adventurous of the travelers 

 returning from the tropics, redstarts, yellow warblers and 

 the black and white creeper being among the first to 

 come. 



The early birds are less regular than the warblers 

 and orioles of May, whose arrival we can predict quite 

 accurately. The weather is less settled and storms will 

 delay them. But March is a month of promise and the 

 hardier the adventurers, the more we welcome them. 



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 having friends interested in trees, woodlands 

 and forests are urged to send their names to 

 the association, and a sample copy of the magazine, 

 American Forestry, will be sent to them with the com- 

 pliments of the member. 



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