SECTION II. 



THE PROTECTION OP BIRDS IN PRACTICE. 



THE CBBATION AND MAINTENANCE OF OPPOETUNITIES FOB NESTING AS 

 THE CHIEF REQUmEMBNT. 



All experts are fully agreed that the most important step for bringing 

 about the successful protection of birds consists in establishing suitable 

 conditions of life, and, above all, opportunities for building nests. 

 Without suitable breeding-places the healthy development of bird-life 

 is arrested at the very outset, in spite of laws for the protection of 

 birds and all other efforts. It is an established fact that birds will 

 not breed at all if they cannot find a suitable place for their nests, 

 or they make use of makeshifts, which cause the destruction of their 

 broods. 



Baron von Berlepsch says the same thing when he writes : — " We 

 can only preserve and increase our birds in the long run by restoring 

 to them the necessary conditions of hfe — above all, the opportunities 

 for nesting of which we have robbed them." 



The truth of these words and their practical apphcation have been 

 clearly and conclusively proved by him at his experimental station at 

 Seebach. He has succeeded by means of untiring investigations and 

 observation in establishing the most suitable conditions of life for our 

 birds, especially opportunities for nesting for those which build in 

 holes, as well as for those that breed in the open. 



