No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 261 



pruning purposes. Horse-chestnuts {^sculus hippocasta- 

 nwn) and privet (Ligustrum) are pruned to make nesting 

 sites at various heights; many bushes are tied together for 

 this purpose, and many of both kinds hold nests of this year. 



2. Plantations under considerable shade naturally showed 

 considerably less growth than those in the open, and perhaps 

 less nests. In heavy shade the privet, horse-chestnut, and to 

 some extent the yew {Taxus baccator), do well as "stock 

 bushes." 



3. Plantations primarily for the birds were perhaps the 

 most interesting. These were of various ages and stages of 

 development. The branch platforms for holding nests were 

 developed to a high degree, and very many were used by 

 birds. In the first pruning for this « purpose the cut is made 

 just above the ring where the growth began, a year or two 

 years before cutting. This causes the shrub or tree to throw 

 out many shoots in different directions in about the same 

 plane. Thereafter these " whorls " are cut annually from a 

 point perhaps one-half an inch to one inch beyond the point 

 of the beginning of the growth of the previous year, for the 

 purpose not only of further enlarging the platform, but also 

 of keeping the leaf screen close about the nest from year to 

 year. It is the best plan at the end of the season to throw 

 down all nests in the whorls as well as from the boxes. 



Almost all the older plantations are connected with each 

 other and with the parks by some kind of a hedge or row of 

 trees. The plantation last set, however, lies in the midst of 

 extensive grain fields probably 300 yards from any wood. 

 This is to some extent experimental, to test the willingness 

 of the birds to use such an isolated spot. 



The " hedge of firs " (in this case Picea excelsa) is topped 

 every five or six years. Herr Schwabe, who is directly in 

 charge of this work, gives it as his opinion that it would be 

 better to cut the leading tips only each year in August, which 

 would then tend to form side eyes for the following year's 

 growth, thus keeping the trees low with less heavy cutting 

 than is now practiced. 



The rows of poplars pruned in the manner described in 



