47 



were staying they found that the farm cat had beaten their score, 

 having brought in during the day two bobwhites and one grouse. 

 Mr. Cassius Tirrell of South Weymouth asserts that a cat living 

 not far from his home has brought in so many bobwhites and 

 grouse that the family has "lost track of the number." Mr. 

 John B. Burnham of New York, president of the American Game 

 Protective and Propagation Society, writes that one of his farmer's 

 cats killed "quite a number" of ruffed grouse, including adult 

 birds. Several correspondents report cats seen carrying or eating 

 full-grown ruffed grouse, and one saw a cat catching the young. 

 The illustration of the dead grouse presented herewith is that of 

 a bird killed Feb. 2, 1915, by a cat which was frightened away 

 while in the act. The bird was not quite dead, but its throat 

 was torn open and it was breathing its last. (See Plate VI.) 



Heath Hens. 

 Probably the cat is, next to man, a chief factor in the destruc- 

 tion of the prairie chicken on the plains. Miss Althea R. 

 Sherman writes me from National, la., that the farmers there 

 keep from 12 to 18 cats per farm, and that she does not know 

 of one that will not hunt birds. The prairie chicken is much 

 like the heath hen, which has been almost exterminated in the 

 east. The cat and the rat are the only predatory mammals on 

 Martha's Vineyard, where the few remaining heath hens now 

 live, and whenever cats come on the reservation, the remains 

 of full-grown heath hens tell the tale. Therefore, Superintendent 

 Day kills every cat of which he finds traces. (See Plate II.) 



Pheasants and Partridges. 

 Since the introduced ring-necked pheasant has become com- 

 mon in Massachusetts, many reports of the killing of these birds 

 by cats have been received. They are taken from the time the 

 chicks are hatched until they are full-grown, although the young 

 birds and females suffer most. I have seen two full-grown cocks 

 that had been killed by cats, and many more have been re- 

 ported. This seems remarkable, as the cock pheasant is said 

 to be a great fighter and to be able to whip the ordinary barn- 

 yard cock. Mr. Lee S. Crandall, of the New York Zoological 

 Park, writes that he has known of several instances where cats 

 have killed and carried off full-grown golden pheasants, and that 

 they have killed so-called Hungarian partridges in the park. 

 It is a well-known fact that many of these partridges, imported 



