48 



into Connecticut by the game commissioners at an expense of 

 many thousands of dollars, were killed by cats. Some cats 

 specialize particularly on certain game birds. 



Snipe, Woodcock and Other Game Birds. 

 According to Darwin, a Mr. St. John records a case where a 

 cat frequented marshy ground at night and brought home snipe 

 and woodcock. Mr. W. F. Henderson of Rockland tells of a 

 man whose cat brought in 18 woodcock in a season. Rails are 

 common game of cats. Prof. Edward P. St. John of Hartford, 

 Conn., tells of 12 Virginia rails brought in by one cat. All the 

 shore birds, plover and snipe, are taken by cats, particularly the 

 young of those that breed in inhabited regions. No species of 

 game bird, except possibly certain wildfowl, can escape the toll 

 that cats take of their numbers. This tax is severe enough with 

 wild birds breeding naturally, but when any attempt is made to 

 rear large numbers of game birds on a small area, as on a game 

 preserve or bird reservation, the cats' destructiveness is multiplied 

 tremendously. 



The Cat on the Game Preserve. 



All experienced gamekeepers regard this animal as one of the 

 most vicious and despicable of the so-called vermin which often 

 render the raising of game birds a precarious calling. Prof. 

 Clifton F. Hodge, a pioneer in the successful artificial rearing of 

 grouse and bobwhites, was almost forced by cats to give up his 

 experiments in Worcester. Although the birds were kept in pens, 

 the cats reached through the wires at night, tore, mutilated 

 and killed many birds, and drove the brooding mothers from their 

 young, so that the little ones died of exposure; and when, with 

 the utmost care and vigilance, bobwhites were reared and liber- 

 ated, the cats caught practically all in the fields. The remarks 

 of gamekeepers about cats' ravages are unprintable, and they 

 rarely attempt to rear game birds without first destroying all 

 roaming cats if possible. 



I have followed the history of several undertakings of this 

 character. In one instance the keeper on a game farm fully one 

 mile from any village, and with very few neighbors, was obliged 

 to destroy about 200 cats the first year, as the cats got all the 

 young birds. In two other cases nearly half that number of cats 

 were destroyed. On the Childs-Walcott Preserve, in Norfolk, 

 Conn., which is situated in a rather wild, mountainous country, 

 81 cats were taken from February, 1911, to September, 1913.* 



> Job, Herbert K.: The Propagation of Wild Birds, 101S, p. 6. 



