CHAPTER II. 



PROVISION OF NESTING-PLACES FOR BIRDS BREEDING IN THE OPEN. 



BIRDS breeding in the open are those that make their nests in bushes 

 and trees, on the ground, on banks, among reeds, etc. 



The want of opportunities for nesting is becoming more and more 

 apparent as far as these birds are concerned, which include our best 

 songsters, since there has been a perfect mania for destroying hedges 

 and fences everywhere, for cutting down the undergrowth in woods 

 and on the outskirts of woods, and for dividing fields, drying up 

 swamps and ponds, and altering river beds. 



Successful methods of providing nesting-places for such birds are 

 also to be seen at the experimental station of Seebach, where extensive 

 plantations have been laid out and treated suitably for the purpose. 

 Special attention must be drawn to the fact that in these plantations 

 the most important points are the correct choice of shrubs and their 

 suitable pruning. 



In the choice of the shrubs, those are specially considered which can 

 bear pruning, and which branch out in consequence of being cut, which 

 keep away vermin by means of thorns, thrive well in the shade, and are 

 especially favoured by individual species of birds, as, for instance, 

 the gooseberry, which is liked by the warblers. These bushes include 

 especially white-thorn (Crataegus oxyacantha and C. monogyna), horn- 

 beam (Carpinus betulus), common beech* (Fagus silvatica), dog rose 

 (Rosa canina), wild gooseberry (Ribes grossularia) , tall American 

 gooseberry (Ribes grossularia arboreum) a species of wild currant 

 (Ribes pumilum) [Ribes alpinum has not proved satisfactory], privet 

 (Ligutrum vulgar e), the two varieties of Lonicera (Lonicera xylosteum 

 and Lonicera tatarica) and of conifers, the red cedar and pollarded 

 firs.f 



* A lopped beech is specially liked for an early brood, because the nest can 

 often be built in the old dry foliage. 



f The Norway spruce (Picea excelsa remonti] is used at Seebach instead of 

 pollarded firs ; it possesses the necessary shape without lopping. 



