15 



Berry-bearing trees and buslies wliose berries tend to preserve and 

 keep healthy tlie singing birds must be preserved and cultivated as 

 much as possible. Damp or marshy spots and pools are not to be 

 drained if possible, especially as the preservation of «-ater is important 

 for woods from the cultural point of view. The breeding bird requires 

 water in the immediate vicinity of its nest, and the want of it has 

 robbed entire tracts of woods of useful birds. Decaying trees of small 

 value which the useful birds that nest in holes prefer as breeding- 

 places should be preserved, if their destruction is not absolutely 

 necessary. In coniferous and deciduous thickets, brushwood should 

 be piled on wooden stands in sheltered jjlaces to serve as breeding- 

 places for singing birds that build in the open. These stands must be 

 made of poles and rest on feet some 6-^- feet high. They must be 

 provided with barbed \^'ire or thorns as a protection against weasels, 

 martens, cats, etc., and the neighbourhood of trees with Ioaa' branches 

 should be avoided, so that the vermin cannot jump from the branches 

 on to the stand. In addition nesting-places can easily be made for birds 

 breeding in the open, if densely-foliaged or coniferous branches are 

 bent together and tied, the lower part coming Uppermost. This 

 not onlj^ makes a firm foundation for the nest, but provides a suitable 

 shelter. As a bird, when sitting, has a great desire for water, this 

 can be provided by small dams at the springheads and in some places 

 by deepening damp spots. Si^ecial attention must be paid to reducing 

 the vermin Avhich are dangerous to the birds and their young, esjjecialh^ 

 cats, which are so very harmful. Squirrels, magpies, jays, jackda^vs 

 and crows must not be allowed to increase unduly." 



Since April 1st, 1906, Hamburg has had a bird-keeper appointed 

 by the State, Otto Theil, who was trained for three years at Cassel 

 and at Seebach by Baron von Berlepsch and his old bird-keeper, 

 Jakob Mey. He has hung up boxes and laid out shelter-woods for 

 local boards and private persons as well as for the State, and on State 

 property at Riepenburg, near Zollenspieker, in Vierlanden, he has 

 made a model station for bird-protection after the Seebach pattern. 

 Over three acres of shelter-A'soods for birds have already been planted, 

 winter-feeding and the destruction of the enemies of birds are being 

 correctly carried out, and new plantations especially for water-birds 

 are being planned. The possession by Hamburg of an establish- 



