2o8 WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



such as tiger, leopard, jaguar, lynx and the rest 

 of them are the most blood-thirsty animals on 

 earth. They're built only for killing, with strong 

 jaws, sharp tearing teeth and bodies which are 

 just a bunch of muscles. They can't be trusted. 

 As for being affectionate, or pets, it says in one of 

 my books that Man hasn't domesticated the cat, 

 the cat has domesticated Man. He doesn't do any- 

 thing for his master, like a dog; he just lies around, 

 waiting to be fed. ' ' 



He paused, to see what the reply might be. 



*'Go on," said Bull, evidently unconvinced. 



"Cats," the boy continued, wishing to touch the 

 pot-hunter on a tender point, "kill twice as much 

 game as all the sportsmen in a region put together. 

 One cat near the haunts of Bob- White, Euffed 

 Grouse, or Pheasant, will clean up the neighbor- 

 hood. The principal work of the keeper of a game 

 preserve is the killing of feral or stray hunting 

 cats. Feral cats which breed in the woods raise 

 families of cats even more savage than them- 

 selves, which hunt mainly in the dark, having be- 

 come beasts of prey and nothing else. 



"There are lots of cases where cats have wiped 

 out entire colonies of birds. Three cats, on 

 Wooden Ball Island, killed every single bird of a 



