50 



night. This evidently was due to carelessness in leaving doors 

 open at night. The ordinary chicken killer gets from 2 or 3 to 

 12 in a day, and usually its career is short, except where the 

 chickens wander into shrubbery or woods, where the cat can 

 creep on them unseen by the owner. In such cases the losses 

 are serious and long continued. I have lost many chickens by 

 cats in this way. 



Mr. Warren H. ^Manning of Boston has known a cat to kill 

 between 60 and 90 chickens in a week. Mr. William H. Learned 

 of East Foxborough has known one to kill 64 within a month. 

 Mr. Clayton E. Stone of Lunenburg says that one of his neigh- 

 bors lost over 75 in one season, and that one stray tomcat de- 

 stroyed over 100 chickens in his neighborhood in one summer, 

 some of which were nearly half grown. 



Mr. E. G. Russell of Lynnfield says that he has killed 14 cats 

 that stole chicks. Many people keeping from 1 to 4 cats each 

 report the killing of from 20 to 75 chicks in a season by rats that 

 the cats failed to catch. 



It is of interest to examine the figures from reports regarding 

 the number of chickens killed by cats; 124 cats killed 685 

 chickens in one day, or 5.6 chickens each. The number reported 

 as killing chickens for a week is much smaller, as many chicken 

 killers are not allowed to live a week after their misdeeds become 

 known. Twenty-four cats killed 396 chickens in a week, an 

 average of 16.5 chicks per cat; 11 cats killed 189 chicks in a 

 month, or 18.8 per cat, and 18 cats killed 699 chicks in a season, 

 or 38.8 each. The last were mostly vagrant or woods cats 

 which took chicks, notwithstanding the efforts of the owners 

 of the chicks to stop it. The above is a remarkable showing 

 when it is considered that strenuous efforts were made to stop 

 these depredations, and that nearly all these cats were killed 

 within a short time after it became known that they were killing 

 chickens. 



Most of the chicks killed by these sporting felines are small, 

 but it is not rare for them to attack chickens from one to two 

 pounds in weight, or even larger. Farm cats do not commonly 

 attack chickens, owing to early education and the quick elimina- 

 tion of the chicken-killing strains, but the city and village pussies, 

 and stray or feral cats not subject to this early training and later 

 selection, furnish most of the chicken killers. Mr. Sewall A. 

 Faunce of Boston says that his cat caught a half-grown rooster, 

 brought it home and was killing it when he came to the rescue. 

 Mr. Newell A. Eddy of Bay City, ^Slich., missed chickens day 

 after day from a flock about one-third grown, and finally his 



