262 On Nesting Boxes for Wild Birds.


suitable boxes in inducing birds to breed in one’s neighbour¬

hood is quite remarkable. For even with almost unlimited

natural sites nearly every box will be occupied. They give also

opportunities for observing the nesting habits of hole-breeding

species which could hardly be otherwise obtained.


At one time I used to provide numbers of nesting boxes

for Starlings, not for their sakes however, but with the intention

perhaps of relieving the Woodpeckers, whose every hole used

to be appropriated by these pests as soon as completed.

Now however I have given it up, as the enormous numbers of

the Starling make it impossible to suppty sufficient boxes, and

also the Green Woodpecker is beginning to assert itself. I have

seen two or three cases this season in which the Green Wood¬

pecker has resented the attacks of numerous pairs of Starlings.


Owing to the kindness of our Editor, Mr. Seth-Smith, I

am enabled to show some charming pictures of some boxes in

situ. Fig. i represents an oak box that was put up in 1872 ; it is

perfectly sound and good, and has been occupied by Tawny Owls

on an average every other year. It has occasionally had Barn

Owls in it, but when taken to by Tawny Owls the latter come so

much earlier that they keep the Barn Owls out. This box is larger

than those I usually put up now, being 18 inches square inside

and 2 feet high, and is quite unnecessarily large, as I find the

smaller boxes of 15 inches square quite as popular.


Fig. 2 shows a box occupied this year by a pair of Nut¬

hatches, and the mud that is plastered in the hole and around

it can be plainly seen in the photograph. That, too, is a very

old box, about 25 years old.


Fig. 3 shows an ordinary box, in which a Coal Tit was

brooding newly-hatched young ones when we photographed it.


Fig. 4 contained a brood of young Great Tits.



