No. 4.] DECREASE OF BIRDS. 489 



Cats and Dogs. The destructiveness of the cat is noted 

 not only by the greatest number of observers, but, with re- 

 markable unanimity, nearly all who report on the natural 

 enemies of birds place the cat first among destructive animals. 

 The domestic cat, then, introduced, fed, pampered and petted 

 by man, leads the list, and sometimes leads even the sports- 

 man in number of birds killed per day. Mr. Brewster tells 

 ola day's hunt by four sportsmen with their dogs, in which 

 they killed but one game bird, a bob- white. On their return 

 at night to the farmhouse where they were staying, they 

 found that the old cat had beaten their score, having brought 

 in, during the day, two bob- whites and one grouse. Reports 

 of the cat's destructiveness come from every county in the 

 State. Cats in good hunting grounds will average at least 

 fifty birds each per year. I have recorded heretofore the 

 destruction of all the young birds in six nests and two of the 

 parent birds by one cat in a day. Cats kill for the sake of 

 killing, and destroy more birds than they can eat. They 

 take a savage pleasure in playing with their prey, and tortur- 

 ing it in the most cruel manner. Cats are also more destruc- 

 tive than other animals, because so much more abundant. 

 A friend who was raising pheasants was obliged to kill over 

 two hundred cats in a few years. Game birds suffer much 

 from the cat, but the smaller birds suffer more. Cats are far 

 more destructive to birds than the fox, for they climb trees 

 and take the young out of the nests. They easily catch 

 young birds which are just learning to fly. They frequently 

 catch the adult birds upon the ground when they are feeding, 

 or when they are drinking or bathing. The most harmful 

 characteristic of the cat is its tendency to "revert to a wild 

 state. If a dog loses its master and cannot find its home, it 

 seeks to form the acquaintance of a new master ; but the cat 

 is quite as likely to take to the woods and run wild. It 

 then becomes a terror to all living things Avhich it can master. 

 Whoever turns out or abandons a cat or a kitten in the 

 country has much to ansAver for. Proofs of the destructive- 

 ness of cats are not wanting. They were introduced on 

 Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, about 1880. 

 They ran wild, and, multiplying rapidly, exterminated the 

 rabbits which had been in possession of the island for half a 



