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Bird- Lore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. IV 



Published April 1. 1902 



No. 2 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price ill the United States, Canada, and Mexico 

 twenty cents a number, one dollar a year, post- 

 age paid. 



Subscriptions may be sent to the Publishers, at 

 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or 66 Fifth avenue, New 

 Vork City. 



Price in all countries in the International Postal 

 Union, twenty-five cents a number, one dollar and 

 a quarter a year, postage paid. Foreign agents, 

 Macmillan and Company, Ltd., London. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1902, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush is H'orlh Two in the Hand. 



Bird-Lore has published no more help- 

 ful articles for field students than Mr. Brew- 

 ster's 'Voices of a New England Marsh,' 

 to which we gladly devote a large part of 

 this number, postponing to a subsequent 

 issue other articles announced for April. 



The Cat Question 



The most important problem confronting 

 bird protectors to-day is the devising of 

 a proper means for the disposition of the 

 surplus cat population of this country. By 

 surplus population we mean that very large 

 proportion of cats which do not receive the 

 care due a domesticated or pet animal and 

 which are, therefore, practically dependent 

 on their own efforts for food. 



We are not prepared at present to give 

 this subject the attention it deserves, but the 

 introduction of a bill in the Massachusetts 

 legislature to require the licensing of cats 

 impels us to say a word in favor of a meas- 

 ure which we have long thought would go 

 far toward solving the cat problem. 



In the absence of data showing the num- 

 ber of cats in this country, common know- 

 ledge of Tabby's favored place on every 

 hearth-stone, together with her well-known 

 talent for the reproduction of her kind, per- 

 mits us to form some conception of her 



abundance ; and a further knowledge of 

 her widespread distribution in held and 

 forest would add largely to our most con- 

 servative estimate of her numbers. In our 

 own opinion there are not less than twenty- 

 five million cats in the United States and 

 there may be double that number. 



How many of these cats are domesticated, 

 in the true sense of the word, and how 

 many gain their living by the strength of 

 their claws we cannot say, but, in any event, 

 it should be remembered that oceans of 

 cream and miles of blue ribbon have not 

 subdued Pussy's instincts for the chase nor 

 destroyed her skill as a hunter. A house- 

 cat has been actually known to kill fifty 

 birds in a season and a naturalist, than 

 whom none is better qualified to judge, 

 believes that five hundred thousand birds 

 are annually killed by cats in New England 

 alone ! Apply these figures to the cats and 

 the country at large and the result is appal- 

 ling. 



We would not, however, urge the exter- 

 mination of cats. Wholly aside from the 

 pleasure they give to lovers of pets, cats are 

 the natural enemies of those other introduced 

 evils, rats and mice. The cat is an auto- 

 matic, self-setting mouse-trap and as such 

 she commends herself to housekeepers who 

 perhaps may not be otherwise favorably 

 impressed by her peculiar personality. 



But we do strongly advocate such a re- 

 duction of the cat population as would fol- 

 low the passage of this proposed Massachu- 

 setts law with its required annual licensing 

 of cats, its fine imposed on cat owners who 

 do not comply with its provisions, and 

 its instructions to the proper authorities to 

 kill all non-licensed cats. 



Such a law should be supported not only 

 by bird lovers but by cat lovers. By the 

 former because the restriction of the cat 

 population to the well-fed Tabby of the 

 fireside would not only greatly reduce the 

 cat population, but would, or should, do 

 away with its worst element, tne cats who 

 hunt for a living. It should be supported 

 by the latter because its enforcement would 

 put an end to the existence of the many 

 starving, homeless felines of our cities 

 whose happiest fate is sudden death. 



