228 Game Survey of the North Central States 



Evidence of breeding in the wild, however, is ever so much scarcer than 

 that of mere existence in a wild state. Table 52 summarizes all of the reliable 

 reports on wild breeding gleaned in the course of several hundred inquiries from 

 trappers, game wardens, coon hunters, and farmers met during the survey. The 

 fact that only seven out of two or three hundred especially qualified woodsmen 

 had ever, in the course of their experience, found dens containing young, con- 

 stitutes convincing evidence that breeding in the wild is so rare that it can almost 

 be considered exceptional. 



The table lists only instances where dens containing litters were actually 

 found. An equal or greater number of instances of dens not containing litters 

 were reported, many having the appearance of constant use, but the absence of 

 young left room for doubt whether these may have actually been the dens of other 

 mammals in which hunted cats were "treed." A number of dens and litters under 

 old buildings were also reported, but these are excluded because the cats may 

 have been abandoned by the former occupants, and could not necessarily have 

 produced a truly wild den. 



Drift from Cities. If it be true that the "feral" housecat is seldom a 

 wild-breeding animal, where do the large number of cats known to roam wild 

 in our woods and fields come from. 



Probably most of them represent "drift" from cities, villages, abandoned 

 dwellings, or other centers of artificial replenishment. 



To support this statement, two instances are offered. 



(1) The refuge keeper on the Neosho refuge near the town of Neosho, 

 Missouri, killed 50 cats in one winter on 1,300 acres, or one cat per 26 acres. 

 Such a population is hardly possible. A continual drift from the nearby town 

 must have replenished the area. 



(2) Clyde Terrell's father killed on an average of 100 cats per year for a 

 long succession of years on the Terrell farm four miles west of Oshkosh, Wis- 

 consin. This farm was about 160 acres in area. A cat population of one per 1.6 

 acres would be preposterous. A continual influx from the nearby town must have 

 taken place. 



Sex Ratio of Wild Housecats. Circumstantial evidence of the existence 

 of truly wild populations is to be found in the sex ratio of apparently wild in- 

 dividuals. There is a contention almost universal among woodsmen in the north 

 central region that wild housecats are mostly toms. With one exception, how- 

 ever, not one of these woodsmen could adduce figures of the proportion of toms 

 to females in any given number of wild individuals seen or killed. This exception 

 was Mr. Graham, keeper of the Sheboygan Game Refuge, Wisconsin, who killed 

 wild housecats weighing 10, 11, and 18 pounds, in mid-October, 1929, all of 

 which were males. 



It is worthy of note that the den of young found by Claude Hunt in Carter 

 County, Missouri, and that found by Van de Walle in Scott County, Indiana, both 



