11 



tacked to the bottom and top. The bark will draw apart 

 somewhat at the back in drying, but this aperture may be cov- 

 ered, when the box is put up, by nailing or screwing a short 

 stick or pole over the oi)ening on the back, which stick in turn 

 may be nailed or screwed to the supporting building or pole. 

 To make the roof watertight, a piece of cotton cloth, duck or 

 denim may be put on, tacked down over the edge and painted, 

 or a piece of roofing paper may be used. A more permanent 

 covering may be made by using a piece of tin or zinc, as shown 

 in the figure of the chestnut bark box (Fig. 5). To make the 

 expected nest accessible to examination, the top of the bark 

 sides might be fastened to a hoop, and the whole capped by a 

 tin or wooden cover, like that of a lard pail or a berry box. 

 Mr. Winthrop Packard makes a very pretty box of roofing felt. 

 (See Plate II, Fig. 1.) The best support is a slim pole. 



Conductor Nesting Box. 



Large wooden conductors, used to carry water down from the 

 eaves of large buildings, may be obtained from some dealers in 

 lumber or moldings, sawed into sections, and utilized precisely 

 as in the case of hollow limbs. 



Berlepsch Nesting Box. 



Baron Hans von Berlepsch of Thuringia has invented a device 

 for making nesting boxes similar in shape to the nesting holes 

 of woodpeckers, and he has 

 been wonderfully successfid in 

 attracting all hole-nesting lairds 

 of that region to these boxes. 

 (Fig. 7 and Plate II, Fig. 2.) 

 The theory on which they are 

 built is admirable, but after 

 ten years' trial of them in this 

 country I am convinced that 

 most Massachusetts birds do 

 not prefer them to the hollow 



limb or even to the rectangular box (Fig. 8) that many people 

 have used with great success. The Berlepsch style of box may 



Fig. 7. — Berlepsch box and flicker hole. 



