Clje ^utrubon Societies! 



EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT 



Edited by T. GILBERT PEARSON, Secretary 



Address all correspondence, and send all remittances for dues and contributions, to 

 the National Association of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York. City. 



William Dutcher, President 

 Frederic A. Lucas, Acting President T. Gilbert Pearson, Secretary 



Theodore S. Palmer, First Vice President Jonathan Dwioht, Jr., Treasurer 

 Samuel T. Carter, Jr., Attorney 



Any person, club, school or company in sympathy with the objects of this Association may become 

 a member of it, and all are welcome. 



Classes of Membership in the National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild 

 Birds and Animals: 



$5 annually pays for a Sustaining Membership 

 $100 paid at one time constitutes a Life Membership 

 $1,000 constitutes a person a Patron 

 $5,000 constitutes a person a Founder 

 $25,000 constitutes a person a Benefactor 



CATS AND BIRDS 



The town of Montclair, New Jersey, 

 has passed an ordinance to prevent 

 vagrant cats from running at large in the 

 community. This appears to be the first 

 ordinance of this character which has 

 been passed in the country, and its opera- 

 tion will be watched with great interest. 



Evidence that cats constitute a pro- 

 found menace to our wild-bird popula- 

 tion has been accumulating rapidly, and 

 very naturally bird-protectionists have 

 come to look upon this subject as one that 

 must be seriously dealt with according to 

 the evidence produced. This Association 

 has been slow to take up the fight against 

 the cat; not because we were uninter- 

 ested, but because it has always been our 

 policy never to launch a campaign until 

 we feel absolutely certain that the project 

 to be advocated is just and necessary. 

 We have watched with interest the efforts 

 made to secure state laws in New York, 

 New Jersey, and Massachusetts, for 

 restricting the numbers of vagrant cats. 

 These attempts have thus far proved 

 unsuccessful, but they have all aroused 

 much discussion of an enlightening char- 

 acter. The Association is not at this time 

 prepared to begin a campaign against 

 cats, but we have undertaken, and shall 

 continue to push, various investigations of 



the relation of cats to birds. We want to 

 know the truth; and all readers of Bird- 

 Lore are invited to forward to this office 

 any evidence they may have bearing on 

 the subject, either for or against cats as 

 destroyers of birds. 



The Association has been cooperating 

 with the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Department, for several months, in care- 

 ful and energetic studies of this character, 

 Edward H. Forbush having the matter in 

 hand. A brief preliminary report by him 

 published in Bird-Lore for March-April, 

 1915, page 165, should be read by every 

 member of this Association. 



The New York State Conservation 

 Commission sent instructions, on August 

 26, of this year, to all the State Game- 

 protectors to gather and submit data on 

 the destructiveness of cats to birds. 



Recently, the Long Island Bird Club 

 was organized at Oyster Bay, and the first 

 statement of its objects that was given 

 to the press by its president, Col. Theo- 

 dore Roosevelt, contained a strong refer- 

 ence to a plank in its platform on the cat 

 problem. I do not know of an active 

 Audubon society, bird club, or sports- 

 man's association that does not look on 

 the cat with misgivings. 



Now and then some person, who is at 



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