VAGRANT CATS IN THE UNITED STATES 



327 



or nonexistent, and although a fox or dog 

 may catch an occasional cat or kitten, there 

 is no effectual natural agent to check their 

 increase. Moreover, man adds every year to 

 the numbers of these wild cats. Many cats 

 are abandoned by their owners, in the city 

 in the sunnner, or in the country on returning 

 to town. At the end of the summer of 1914, 

 forty, and one hundred deserted cats re- 

 spectivel}^, were reported from Orchard 

 Beach, Maine, and from Nantucket Beach, 

 and these are only two of many such reports. 

 The greater number of these cats survive and 

 run wild. 



Mr. Frank M. Chapman of the American 

 Museum is quoted as estimating the number 

 of cats in the United States to be at least 

 twenty-five million and possibly twice that 

 number. "Having," says Mr. Forbush, 

 "practically exterminated the wild native 

 cats of the Eastern States, and having passed 

 a national law prohibiting the importation of 

 noxious mammals and birds, we have in the 

 meantime introduced another destructive 

 species in vastly larger numbers, and dis- 

 seminated it throughout the land so that it 

 must live upon the country as the native cats 

 formerly did. Because of its abundance it 

 has become more destructive to wild life 

 about the dwellings of man than any other 

 creature, and is therefore more injurious or 

 beneficial to man according as it preys upon 

 man's enemies or his friends." 



Although some cats in domesticity have 

 been trained to eat food of a vegetable nature, 

 these animals are naturally carnivorous and 

 feed upon birds and small mammals. They 

 kill so often simply for sport, leaving their 

 victims undevoured, that they are exceed- 

 ingly destructive. 



Courtesy of Massachiisetls 

 Stale Board of AgricuUure 

 Locations in Massachusetts of observers who fur- 

 nished information used in the bulletin "The Domestic 

 Cat," published by the State Board of Agriculture 



Dr. A. K. Fisher, in charge of the economic 

 investigations of the United States Biological 

 Survey, estimates that the cats of New York 

 State destroy three million, five hundred 

 thousand birds each year. Young birds 

 and nestlings especially fall a prey, as the 

 cats climb up to the nests. Many game 

 birds are killed, especially ruffed grouse and 

 quail, the latter perhaps the most useful bird 

 of all to the farmer. On state game pre- 

 serves the records show that depredations of 

 cats cost thousands of dollars yearly, and on 

 many islands where birds are protected the 

 introduction of cats has resulted in complete 

 extermination of some species. In addition, 

 rabbits, moles and shrews, frogs, toads, and 

 lizards succumb to the rapacity of this in- 

 corrigible hunter. Of these creatures the 

 shrew alone is of more economic importance 

 to mankind than is the cat, for it eats twice 

 or three times its own weight of insects 

 every day. The food of the toad consists of 

 weevils, caterpillars, potato beetles and other 

 destructive insects, and this animal is so 

 much more useful to the human race than 

 the cat which destroys it, that it should be 

 protected by law. Frogs, lizards and sala- 

 manders are also nearly all insectivorous and 

 harmless, and therefore useful each in its? 

 own degree, while the economic importance 

 of birds can scarcely be overestimated. 



Without going into details as to the differ- 

 ent species of birds and their respective values 

 it will suffice to state that the fight against 

 insect pests such as the gypsy moth, the 

 brown-tailed nioth, and the elm leaf beetle, 

 cost the State of Massachusetts about nine 

 million dollars in one year (1913). There 

 are about fifty species of birds that feed on the 

 brown-tailed moth and gypsy moth; others 

 devour the elm leaf beetle and other insect 

 ravagers. These birds should be protected 

 and increased in every way possible, but each 

 of these useful species is constantly preyed 

 upon by the domestic cat and is becoming 

 scarcer every year. 



What has the cat to set against all this 

 indictment? A canvass of cat owners and 

 cat lovers in Massachusetts brings out the 

 fact that only about one-third of the cats 

 kept in country towns are known to catch 

 rats at all, and only about one-fifth catch 

 them regularly. As mousers, cats make a 

 better general record; but traps and pre- 

 cautions properly used, will free any dwelling 

 of rats and mice, and will do more in a month 



