34 



Active and Ijitelligeni Birdcatchers. 



Again, Stables says that when Timby, a cat of which he knew, 

 was but Uttle more than a kitten he brought down birds from the 

 highest trees. ^ He asserts also that he knew of a cat that caught 

 two sparrows at once (probably young), and when pursued and 

 attacked by a third sparrow (probably the mother) killed it with 

 one paw.' This he considers "funny." Cats, he says, delight 

 to spend a day in the woods, birdcatching. They rob the nests, 

 too, when they find any, and cases have occurred of a cat pay- 

 ing visits to nests day after day until the young were hatched, 

 then eating them. 



Cats enticing Birds. 

 Romanes uses the birdcatching habit to illustrate the intelli- 

 gence of the cat. He cites the statement made by Mr. James 

 Hutchins (Nature, Vol. XH, p. 330), who says that a cat used as 

 a decoy a young bird that had fallen out of a nest and made 

 repeated attempts to catch the parents. He tells of a cat which 

 often hid in the shrubbery and watched for birds whenever 

 crumbs were thrown out; of another, having the same habit, 

 that scattered crumbs for the birds that it might catch them 

 when the family stopped feeding them; and of still another that, 

 in order to attract the birds, uncovered the crumbs that had been 

 covered with faUing snow, and then crept behind a bush to await 

 developments.' These stratagems met with varying success. 

 Rev. J. G. Wood, a strong friend of pussy, avers that a cat 

 concealed herself, decoyed sparrows within reach of her spring 

 by imitating their note, and repeatedly caught them.* What 

 chance would there be for a bird with cats so crafty? After all 

 this, who, believing these tales, can doubt that cats are intelli- 

 gent? 



Numbers of Birds killed by Cats. 

 Most people do not realize how destructive cats are to bird 

 life because their attention has never been called to the facts and 

 because most feline depredations occur at night. In my investi- 

 gations much evidence has been secured which is very convincing. 

 In the year 1903, at the instance of the secretary of the State 

 Board of Agriculture, an inquiry was undertaken regarding the 

 decrease of birds in Massachusetts. As a part of this investiga- 

 tion a questionnaire was sent out to some 400 correspondents, 



> Stables, Gordon: The Domestic Cat, 1876, p. 131. 



* Ibid., p. 165. 



* Romanes, George J.: Animal Intellisence, 1S83, pp. 417, 418. 



* Wood, J. G.: Natural Historj- (1869), Vol. I., p. 201. 



