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 flickers and the golden-fronted and red- 
headed woodpeckers have been known to use nest boxes, but few 
trials of them have been made hi 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 Tassel 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 1 1907 i. 1 
i Heisemann, M., How to Attract and Protect Wild Birds, pp. 45-46, 1908. 
