182 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
were killed. If we assume, however, that the average cat on the farm 
kills but ten birds per year and that there is one cat to every farm in 
Massachusetts, we have in round numbers, seventy thousand cats killing 
seven hundred thousand birds annually. 
The average taken by Forbush, of ten birds to each cat, 
is a low one, as every observer will agree, and his figures for 
a single State, however striking they may appear, are only 
too near the truth. If we are to preserve our birds we must 
take steps to destroy all stray cats, and to reduce the num- 
ber of cats to a minimum. Birds form a natural part of 
our wild life, cats do not; they form a destructive factor 
that has been introduced into the natural order of things 
by man, and in a state of nature an abundance of cats and 
birds is an impossibility. 
In city parks and other places in which it is desired to 
encourage and protect birds, it is necessary that care should 
be exercised to prevent the undue multiplication of red 
squirrels, which frequently prove to be serious destroyers of 
bird life. Further, they often appropriate nesting-boxes 
and turn them into storage places for their food supplies. 
In the neighbourhood of dwellings the house-sparrow is 
generally an enemy to our native birds. In many places 
these sparrows have driven away the useful insectivorous 
birds, particularly those of the swallow tribe. While they 
feed, to some extent, upon insects during the season when 
they are raising their broods of young, and on the seeds of 
weeds when other food is not available, they are, on the 
whole, very undesirable, and every effort should be made 
to destroy them. They are seriously destructive to young 
plants, especially garden vegetables such as peas; in coun- 
try districts they destroy and spoil large quantities of grain, 
and their habits are such as to earn for them the title of 
‘avian rats.’”’ The best methods of destruction are shoot- 
ing, the taking of their nests and eggs, and the use of poisoned 
grain. 
