46 



the black woodpecker even, have inhabited them ; while the boxes of 

 earlier days were only used by a few species, and very rarely at that. 

 The author was able to convince himself that 90 per cent, of the 2,000 

 boxes in the wood at Kammerforst (part of the Seebach experimental 

 station), and nearly all of the 500 at Seebach, and of the 2,100 near 

 Cassel,* were occupied by various species (see pp. 25 and 28 for exact 

 list of birds). The Prussian Board of Agriculture has caused extensive 

 experiments to be made with these boxes, with excellent results, as 

 published documents affirm. 



Of the 9,300 boxes hung up by the Government in the State and 

 Communal woods of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, 70-80 per cent, were 

 used the first year, and all have been inhabited this year (1907). The 

 value of this nesting-box compared with those of other makes is proved, 

 among other things, by a letter sent me from Wilmersdorf, near Berlin, 

 in which I am informed that for five or six years unsuccessful experiments 

 were made with other boxes, but that the von Berlepsch kind, which 

 were hung up last year, were all occupied at once. The same favourable 

 results are reported by numerous official departments, societies, and 

 private individuals. It would take too long to enumerate them all 

 here. 



A few proofs must be adduced of the indirect results, that is to say, of 

 the benefits derived from the use of nesting-boxes. It is not necessary 

 to refer to the old problem regarding the number of caterpillars, 

 chrysalides, etc., a tit eats daily, and how many pounds of caterpillars 

 are in consequence eaten in a year by a whole family of tits, but I will 

 give a few actual, recent examples of the benefits resulting from a 

 judicious protection of birds, which I have taken from the material 

 nearest at hand.f 



The Hainich wood, south of Eisenach, which covers several square 

 miles, was stripped entirely bare in the spring of 1905 by larvce of 

 a little moth (Tortrix viridana). The wood of Baron von Berlepsch, 

 in which there had long been nesting-boxes, of which there are now 



* In Cassel a station for the protection of birds was established seven years 

 ago on the model of that at Seebach, and it may now be considered complete. It 

 is under the direction of the section " Vogelschutz," of the Hessian Society 

 for the Protection of Animals. Major Henrici, Cassel, Weinbergstrasse, is 

 ready to give any information and assistance that may be required. 



t From a lecture read by Baron von Berlepsch last winter to the German 

 Society of Agriculture, Berlin. 



