NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



bird life. They eagerly seek out the nests of birds 

 which build in trees and devour their eggs and 

 nestlings. 



The domestic cat has been, and is, very much over- 

 rated as a destroyer of rats and mice. The harm it 

 does to bird life in and about towns and villages and 

 around homesteads is immense. Well-fed cats usually 

 do not trouble to hunt down wild birds to any consider- 

 able degree, but the numbers of uncared for and semi- 

 wild domestic cats in and about cities, villages, farms, 

 and in the woods is much larger than is generally 

 believed. Cats at all times prefer birds to rats for 

 food. Cats which I have possessed at various times 

 developed into bird hunters, and after a time they 

 refused to eat rats and mice which were caught in 

 traps and given them. 



The grounds of the Port Elizabeth Museum were 

 frequented by two or three dozen pairs of laughing 

 turtle doves, and a variety of other birds were to be 

 seen amidst the shrubs and flower beds at all times 

 of the day. 



A vagabond cat appeared, and within three months 

 the birds had all been captured and eaten by it. This 

 cat refused poisoned bait of various tempting kinds, 

 and it was some considerable time before we were 

 able to encompass its death. It used to lie concealed, 

 and spring out upon the unsuspecting bird and strike 

 it down as it rose to fly. 



Cats breed rapidly, and a few ownerless cats will 

 soon populate a locality and practically exterminate the 

 birds. Cats are tough and hardy, and their enemies 



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