NEST BOXES. 



15 



utilized by the birds, the poles should be reasonably exempt from 

 attack. Those suitable for woodpeckers (similar to that illustrated 

 by figs. 1 and 2) cost 25 cents each in lots of 20 or more. They may 

 be used to protect trees, fence posts, and buildings, as well as telegraph 

 and telephone poles. 



Among native species nickers and the golden-fronted and red- 

 headed woodpeckers have been known to use nest boxes, but few 

 trials of them have been made in the United States. However, such 



Fig. 1.— Homemade 

 nest box for wood- 

 peckers. 



Fig. 2.— Longitudi- 

 nal section of nest 

 box shown in fig- 

 ure 1. 



experiments have proved very successful in Europe, as the following 

 account of their utility in Germany, where they have been employed 

 extensively, shows: 



Wherever these nesting boxes have been hung up, great success has been the result. 

 All the breeders in holes . . . have inhabited them. . . . Ninety per cent of the 

 2,000 boxes in the wood at Kammerforst . . . and nearly all of the Seebach and of 

 the 2,100 near Cassel were occupied. . . . The Prussian board of agriculture has 

 caused extensive experiments to be made with these boxes, with excellent results. 

 Of the 9,300 boxes hung up by the Government in the State and communal woods of 

 the Grand Duchy of Hesse, 70 to 80 per cent were used the first year, and all have 

 been inhabited this year (1907). 1 



Heisemann, M., How to Attract and Protect Wild Birds, pp. 45-46, 1908. 



