i6irti*lore 



A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of the Audubon Societies 



Vol. XIV January— February, 1912 No. 1 



My Experience with Von Berlepsch Nesting-boxes 



By FREDERIC H. KENNARD, Newton Centre, Mass. 



With photographs by Fred B. McKechnie 



OUR place in Newton Centre, Mass., consists of a piece of land, about 

 forty-four acres in extent, lying along the southerly and westerly side 

 of a hill, and includes as follows: 



Three acres of lawn between the house and road on the westerly side of 

 the place; with a few picturesque old apple trees scattered about, remnants 

 of an orchard of the previous generation. We keep clipped only that portion of 

 the lawn immediately about the house, garden and tennis lawn; and on the 

 remainder cultivate hay, thus affording the ground-building birds additional 

 chance. Such a lawn, with its waving grass tops, with their lights and shadows 

 and many tints, and, in their season, thousands of crocuses, narcissi, and daisies, 

 is always far more satisfactory to me than any closely trimmed lawn could 

 ever be. 



Six acres of rather wet tussock-grown meadow, on the southerly side of 

 the place and at the base of the hill. Through this runs a brook, bordered 

 by birches, elms, red maples, witch hazels, alders, wild roses, etc. 



And about thirty-five acres of woods, which may be divided, for con- 

 venience of description, into two areas. East and West. 



Unfortunately, the spring before my purchase of the place, five years ago, 

 a very destructive brush fire had run through the woods, and in the East 

 portion the underbrush, which had included a second growth of white pines, 

 birches, etc., had been entirely destroyed; and today the wood here is an open 

 park, in which the underbrush is just springing up again, but devoid of that 

 coppice so necessary for affording protection to the birds, shading and protect- 

 ing the ground, as well as cloaking the naked monotony of the trunks. 



In the seventeen acres comprising the West wood, however, the fire 

 was providentially checked before it had burned over the whole of it. 



This area, on the westerly portion of which the house is set, is nearly covered 

 by a wood of tall white pines, pitch pines, and a few hemlocks, interspersed 



