45 



woodpecker, nuthatch. Box Al is for blue tit, marsh-tit, coal-tit, 

 crested tit, and for these only, and they are perfectly safe from sparrows, 

 and should therefore be used everywhere where sparrows are trouble- 

 some. 



Box B must be fixed 12 to 16 feet from the ground, on trees, buildings, 

 etc. It is mostly inhabited by starlings,* and also by the greater spotted 

 woodpecker, in woods, plantations, avenues, and gardens, and the 

 birds named for A.f If these boxes are hung chiefly for starlings 

 they can be put quite close together, several on a tree (for reason 

 see pp. 46, 47). 



Box C should be placed from 6 to 50 feet above the ground, near 

 cattle pastures and marshy lowlands, in plantations of fruit trees, in 

 avenues, and in woods. It will be used chiefly by the green wood- 

 pecker. 



Box D must be put high up on trees in woods, parks, etc., for stock- 

 doves, kestrels, jackdaws, and owls. It is advisable to put two or 

 three boxes close together for stockdoves. 



* People are often afraid of encouraging starlings to settle for fear that they 

 may later on injure the fruit, especially cherries. This is quite a misconception. 

 It is perfectly true that the starlings do a great deal of damage when united in 

 large flocks, but it has been proved that those are not the starlings that breed in 

 the neighbourhood. 



There is one phenomenon that has been observed in starlings and other 

 birds : they only stay for one or one-and-a-half days in their breeding-place 

 after the young are fledged. Then they go many miles away in great numbers 

 and form the large flocks which are so dreaded. It is not, therefore, the starlings 

 bred in the neighbourhood, but strange starlings which do so much damage to 

 the fruit growers. The following two observations will confirm this statement : 



Kammerforst (Langensalza) possesses extensive cherry orchards, which im- 

 mediately adjoin the wood of Baron von Berlepsch, where at least 1,000 starlings 

 annually breed in the nesting-boxes. In spite of this, no complaints have ever 

 arisen concerning the cherry orchards, as the local authorities will bear witness. 

 The birds have left long before the cherries are ripe. 



This confirms the Baron's observation that starlings have only one brood. All 

 so-called second broods of starlings according to him are the result of unsuccessful 

 first broods, and this is confirmed by the fact that these second broods are only 

 found in isolated cases. 



The opposite may be seen in the district of Lake Mansfeld. All efforts to 

 make the starlings settle there have failed. No young starlings have been seen 

 there in spite of apparently favourable conditions. After the breeding season 

 and during the whole of the summer very large flocks are to be found there ; 

 during the day they besiege the cherry avenues and in the evening they settle in 

 great clouds in the reed plantations of Lake Mansfeld. 



f It is a very common error that tits prefer boxes with small openings. Ex- 

 perience has repeatedly proved that where boxes A and B are placed side by side 

 at the same distance from the ground, box B is preferred by the tits. 



