38 



says: "It is with sickening disgust that I recall the many species 

 of birds, young and old, that were not only killed, but killed by 

 slow torture, by cats on our place in the country. During the 

 past five years in our yard in the city the robins have never suc- 

 ceeded in raising a brood of young ones which escaped the fate of 

 being mauled to death by cats." Mr. F. H. Mosher of Melrose 

 recently told me that robins had been very numerous in his 

 neighborhood this year (1915), but that there were many cats 

 roaming about the vicinity and that he believed that not one 

 young robin escaped them; also, the killing of parent birds by 

 cats leaves many young birds to starve in the nests. 



I have observed some cases, and others have been reported 

 to me, where cats have not noticed the young birds in the nests 

 until they were nearly fledged, and then their cries for food ap- 

 parently attracted the attention of their hereditary enemy, who, 

 if watched and driven away in daylight, climbed the tree and got 

 them at night. Dr. Robert T. Morris writes to the "New York 

 Times" as follows of his two beautiful cats at the farm: — 



It was observed that the cats would mark the location of each nest near 

 the house by the calls of the young birds when they were being fed by their 

 parents, and then would make the rounds of these nests every day, watching 

 for the young when they struggled to the ground, as many young birds do 

 in their first effort at flight. These two cats captured practically all the 

 young from the nests of birds about the house, the number of young birds 

 killed amounting to over fifty, to our knowledge, in the course of thirty days. 

 The cats were then killed, although we were extremely fond of them as pets. 



The following from J. 0. Curtis, Mamaroneck, N. Y., July 24, 

 1914, explains itself: — 



To the Editor of the New York Times: On Saturday last our cat caught 

 two young robins. Having tasted blood, she has developed the hunting in- 

 stinct, and during the last week has caught and killed seven birds. Her 

 funeral will take place Sunday afternoon. 



Female cats with kittens often are very destructive to birds. 

 I have known such a cat in June to destroy within twenty-four 

 hours the young in six nests and also two of the parent birds, 

 but this is the maximum, and I have never heard of another 

 case so extreme except where cats have invaded dovecotes, 

 chicken yards or pens in which birds were confined. 



Much more detailed testimony is furnished by ornithologists 

 and students of bird life. It is astonishing how rarely most 

 people notice the cries of birds in distress, but the ornithologist 

 recognizes them at once, and when he investigates he finds in a 



