Some Observations on Bird Protection in Germany 



333 



inserting the finger in the latter, and the contents of the interior be thus 

 exposed to view. In the upper stories of the castle, where the walls consist 

 of a single thickness only of wood, entrance-holes of the proper size have been 

 bored in the walls, and the ordinary type of nest-box hung on a nail inside, 

 after the upper front of the box has been sawed off 

 diagonally, thus: 



« \ / 



* \/ ' 



* V t 





^\^'^ 





\ 1 







*. 1 

 « 1 



FRONT VIEW 



SIDE VIEW 



SIDE VIEW IN 

 POSITION ON 

 WALL OF CASTLE 



A narrow iron band, with a notch in the middle of the lower edge to receive 

 a nail, is fastened horizontally across the upper part of the saw-cut, and the box 

 is then hung on the nail driven into the side of the castle just above the entrance- 

 hole. These boxes are said to be more favored by birds than those conspicuously 

 placed on the outside of the castle wall, and have the great advantage that they 

 are easy to inspect and clean out. Baron von Berlepsch plans to insert a pane 

 of glass in the rear of some of these boxes opposite the nest, surround them with 

 a dark closet, and study by this means the feeding of the young. These boxes 

 in the walls of the castle are used almost entirely by Starlings. 



In the Hainich forest, where the birds, attracted by Baron von Berlepsch's 

 methods, saved his trees from defoliation by caterpillars in 1905, when the 

 surrounding forests were stripped, there are several thousand nest-boxes. 

 These are chiefly in the deciduous woods, which are composed largely of beech 

 and oak. Here they are hung not less than thirty paces apart, and approxi- 

 mately 90 per cent are said to be occupied annually. In the dense spruce woods 

 it has been found impracticable to place boxes, except on the edges of small 

 clearings or partial openings. In such places, an experiment has been tried of 

 placing four different kinds of boxes close together, in order to ascertain which 

 kind is preferred by the smaller Tits. A box of earthernware has been found to 

 be useless. The other three boxes are of the usual pattern, and two of them of 

 stock sizes — A and B. The third is a B box with an A entrance-hole— that is, 

 a good-sized box with a small hole, — and for this the Tits have shown a decided 

 preference. Evidently they like roomy quarters better than cramped ones, 

 provided the entrance is small enough to keep out larger birds. In an old apple 

 prchard here behind the forester's house, two and sometimes three boxes of 



