Vagrant Cats in the United States 



MAN HAS KILLED OUT THE WILD NATIVE CATS IN THE EASTERN UNITED 

 STATES, HAS PROHIBITED BY LAW THE IMPORTATION OF THE MONGOOSE 

 AND OTHER NOXIOUS MAMMALS, IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE COUNTRY'S 

 BIRDS AND OTHER WILD LIFE — YET HAS BY HIS OWN HAND INTRODUCED 

 AS DESTRUCTIVE A SPECIES IN VASTLY LARGER NUMBERS 



Brief Review of a Recent Notable Publication i 



IT is largely on account of the dissension 

 between cat lovers as such and those 

 physicians, game protectors, and bird 

 lovers who wish to see bounds put to the 

 activities of cats, that the Board of Agricul- 

 ture of the State of Massachusetts has issued 

 a bulletin dealing with the cat and the best 

 ways of utilizing and controlling it. The 

 author of this bulletin, Mr. Edward Howe 

 Forbush, State Ornithologist, has brought 

 together in readable form a mass of informa- 

 tion on the history, habits, and proclivities 

 of cats, with opinions of experts, and records 

 and observations of many cat owners and 

 others, in order to establish the proper status 

 of the domestic cat as a useful or harmful 

 economic factor. 



The most impressive fact that first emerges 

 in a study of this interesting vohime is one 

 probably unknown to the majority of cat 

 owners — namely, that unowned cats abound, 

 literally in hundreds, not only around the 

 towns and villages of New England, but also 

 in the fields and forests in places far remote 

 from human habitations. Cats are mainly 

 nocturnal in their habits, and the large num- 

 bers of wild house cats that roam the woods 

 and fields escape general attention on this 

 account, but the evidence collected by Mr. 

 Forbush from many hunters, trappers, 

 naturalists and other observers, leaves no 

 doubt that these vagrant cats are widely 

 distributed, very numerous , and that they 

 constitute a serious menace to wild life. 



Under natural conditions the domestic 

 cat is preyed upon by the puma, lynx and 

 wild cat and also by dogs, foxes, wolves, 



' Thk Domestic Cat: Bird Killer, Mouser and 

 Destroyer op Wild Life. — Means of Utilizing 

 AND Controlling It. Bulletin Number II, Economic 

 Biology. By Edward Howe Forbush. Published by 

 the Board of Agriculture of the State of Massachusetts, 

 1916. 

 326 



raccoons, and by the golden eagle; but in 

 New England today these enemies are rare 



Ijuiir/v.'.y .;/ Massachas'lls 

 State Hoard of Agriculture 

 Vagabond house cat uifh robin. Many house and 

 barn cats, expected to hunt for a living, make birds 

 their staple diet. — Cats kill for the love of killing. 

 This well-fed pet was known to kill fifty-eight birds 

 in one year. — The bird-killing instinct is incurable. 

 This cat has been "taught not to kill birds" by tying 

 the victim under her chin, but she still kills them 



