50 



three years 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 2,750 near Cassel,* were occupied by various' species (see 

 pp. 24 and 25 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 to 80 per cent, were 

 used the first year, and all have been inhabited since then. 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 then hung up, 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. 



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 

 more than 2,000, was untouched. It actually stood out among the 





* In Cassel a station for the protection of birds was established in 1900 

 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 1, is 

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





