40 



He took the little bird and placed it on top of a wide, thick hedge 

 nearly six feet high, believing that it would be safe; but the cat 

 rushed, sprung, and vanished with the bird so quickly that it 

 was hard to see how it was done, and it was all over before he 

 could make a motion to interfere. Mr. Arthur W. Brockway 

 writes from Hadlyme, Conn., that his mother, watching from the 

 house, saw the family cat run up the pole of a martin box near 

 by, seize a martin, and make off so quickly that she was unable 

 to prevent it. Mr. Wilbur F. Smith, game warden of Fairfield 

 County, Conn., says that when he was visiting one day in the 

 country he found four cats tied in the yard, and was told that 

 they were tethered there to keep them from catching birds. 

 While the members of the family were at dinner, the young from 

 a robin's nest fluttered to the ground, and the tied cats caught 

 them alU Birds often are taken from aviaries. Blackston tells 

 how the cat gets them. He saw a cat apparently innocently 

 watching the birds in his aviary, which he thought quite safe, as 

 it was protected by zinc plates eighteen to twenty inches high. 

 Suddenly the cat sprung and caught a fine singing canary, which 

 had been clinging to the wires four feet or more from the ground, 

 fastened her claws in the bird's body, and pulled it through 

 the wires.^ Cats sometimes kill penned game birds at night by 

 reaching them through the wires. Several correspondents speak 

 of seeing cats spring high and strike down birds in full flight, 

 and they easily take slow-flying young birds in this way. 



Statements from People in the Country. — In an attempt to get 

 information regarding the comparative eft'ectiveness of cats, 

 traps and poisons in the destruction of rats, Mr. Walt F. 

 McMahon visited 2 cities and 30 towns in 7 of the eastern coun- 

 ties in Massachusetts, in the months of August, September and 

 October, 1914. Most of his work was done in a farming coun- 

 try, but he made many visits to villages. He secured 271 inter- 

 views from people who were willing to give information. Among 

 them were the proprietors of 18 general stores, 5 livery stables 

 and 8 grain stores. Inquiries were made also in regard to the 

 number and kinds of birds caught by cats, but it was diflScult 

 to get this information because of recent agitation for a cat 

 license. Many answers like the following were received: "Our 



cats do not catch birds, but Mrs. 's cats are catching them 



all the time;" or "Our cats don't kill birds. We whip them if 

 theu.dQ"._ Some owners admitted that their cats killed a few. 



Society of tbe State of Conneoticnt. "~ " 



* BUkaton, W. A., and othent^XaBaHd^and Cafce aHd«>tldB<ln<t^ S52. 



