25 



In a neighbouring barn is a colony of about forty nests of house- 

 martins. 



In the " shelter-woods " and in the poplar and willow avenues we 

 find the same kind of birds as in the park, and in addition : 



Green woodpeckers. 



Great and lesser spotted woodpeckers. 



Woodchat shrikes (Lanius senator}. 



Blue-headed wagtails (Motacilla flava). 



Wheatears. 



Whinchats and stonechats. 



Tree-pipits. 



Corn-buntings and reed-buntings. 



Blue-throats (Erithacus cyaneculus] , and also nightingales 



(Erithacus luscinia}. 



In the woods, on an average, 90 per cent, of the 2,000 nesting-boxes 

 are inhabited by the five species of tits great tit, blue tit, marsh-tit, 

 coal-tit, crested tit green woodpecker, grey woodpecker (Picus 

 viridicanus], greater and middle spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopus 

 medius), nuthatches, tree-creepers, pied fly-catchers, redstarts, and 

 starlings. The boxes for the birds building in open cavities are 

 inhabited by robins and wrens, and in the neighbourhood of the game- 

 keeper's house by wagtails, black redstarts, and spotted fly-catchers. 



With such results we are forced to acknowledge that the measures 

 which have produced them are the only right ones, and we must agree 

 with the remark that " these are conditions that undoubtedly remind 

 us more of an aviary than of nature." 



Baron von Berlepsch, as was stated above, looks on these extensive 

 grounds as an experimental station in the first place, but he has also 

 laid them out as a pattern station which is at all times open to the 

 inspection of those who come to see it, and it is in this light that he 

 wishes it to be regarded. The owner, therefore, not only permits, 

 but desires, for the sake of the good cause, that visitors, besides making 

 enquiries as to the nature and utility of the measures taken at Seebach, 

 should also convince themselves of their successful working. The best 

 time for a visit is the second half of November, after the fall of the leaf. 

 If the owner is not at home, then Jakob Mey, the bird-keeper, is 

 thoroughly competent to give all information, and is prepared to act 

 as a guide to those interested in the matter. 



