ten. Cats, more than all other natural causes, 
bring terror and death to our birds. From sev- 
enty to ninety per cent. of loss is traceable to the 
unfeeling feline. 
Where they are numerous, destruction is great- 
est. The district along Western and Madison 
avenues west of Main avenue sends more birds to 
the evergreens than all of Pine Hills. Cats are 
not nature-placed regulators. They are an arti- 
ficial introduction. Against their beauty and 
utility we hold no controversy; but if they are 
worth having for household pets, they should be 
worth intelligent, thoughtful care. At night see 
that your cat has a secure retreat. Don’t thrust 
her out of doors, nor drop her into a cellar with 
an open window, as one little girl told me she 
had several times unwittingly done. When birds 
are asleep in their nests in bush and tree, your 
pet, who climbs a tree as deftly as a nuthatch, 
has the opportunity to be more than doubly 
vicious, with no fear of interference. 
Let us, with renewed effort, give such protec- 
tion to the birds of Pine Hills as will insure for 
another year, and all years, not only the birds we 
now have with us, but increased numbers. It is 
reasonable to say we have more birds now than 
before the advent of our effort to protect and 
encourage them. 
“The bonnie, bonnie little birds! 
It is their hour of need. 
They have no power to beg for life; 
It is for them we plead.” 
May, 1909. 
45 
