^°!,;,f^-] Correspondence. 73 



My own experience is that bonghs are often broken by the 

 scholars, the nests sometimes pulled about, and the eggs frequently 

 cracked, and there is occasionally one in a school who has no 

 scruples in returning later and removing eggs from nests. It needs 

 an expert to examine a nest containing either eggs or young in 

 such a way that the owners will not desert it, and we read of 

 pincers and spoons being used in the operation. 



Surely a date as far removed as possible from nesting season 

 would be far more appropriate for " Bird Day " than the date now 

 observed. 



Holbrook, Poowong (Vic), 13/5/15. L. C. COOK. 



DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS BY WILD CATS. 



To the Editors of " The Emu." 



Sirs, — Mr. A. J. Campbell expresses the opinion that cats are 

 primarily responsible for the disappearance of certain species of 

 birds.* While I am unable to o^er an opinion as to the cause 

 of the disappearance of the birds named by him, I can heartily 

 support his suggestion that a committee be appointed to report 

 on the question of bird destruction by wild domestic cats. 



The toll taken by the pea-rifle, the grain cart, and the alleged 

 sportsman is undoubtedly heavy, but, in my ■ opinion, wild and 

 tame domestic cats claim a far greater number of the more 

 valuable insectivorous birds. Unfortunately, wild domestic cats 

 have established themselves in many unsettled or thinly settled 

 parts of the Commonwealth, where, formerly, birds were molested 

 only by their indigenous enemies, or, perhaps, rarely, by a visiting 

 naturalist. 



In 1909-1910, while collecting in the far north-west of Kim- 

 berley, I was surprised to find cats on the mainland and adjacent 

 islands, where they had been liberated, no doubt, from passing 

 or visiting trepang and pearling craft. During a more recent 

 expedition across the continent, I frequently saw these animals 

 between Oodnadatta and Alice Springs and through the western 

 Macdonnell Ranges. They were seen again in the Macarthur and 

 Roper River country, across to the Katherine, and northwards 

 to the coast. There are obvious and practically insuperable 

 difficulties in deahng with this pest in the great areas referred to, 

 but in the more settled States the economic value of our fast- 

 diminishing bird-life should justify drastic action, or, at least, 

 serious consideration of a subject which, as Mr. Campbell remarks, 

 will have to be faced sooner or later. 



Few will dispute the fact that cats do a certain amount of good 

 by destroying rabbits and other vermin, which are more effectually 

 checked by artificial means, but it is very much open to doubt 



* Emu, vol. xiv., part 3. 



