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hired man discovered that they went away in company with a 

 large cat. I\Ir. F. C. Stevens of Somerville tells of a kitten 

 owned by Mr. John Little of Salisbury, N. H., that appeared 

 to be playing with half-grown chickens. It killed one and then an- 

 other. Exit kitten! ]Mr. Little had similar experiences with other 

 cats. Mr. Philip Laurent of Philadelphia asserts that a black 

 male cat was accustomed to sleep all day in his yard, prowling 

 at night, and on several occasions he saw the cat in the yard 

 early in the morning with chickens, weighing from two to three 

 pounds each, which it had killed. Dr. Louis B. Bishop, the well- 

 known ornithologist of New Haven, Conn., writes that in 

 October or November a gardener employed by one of his neigh- 

 bors said that cats had killed two chickens and left the remains 

 in the yard. Dr. Bishop did not see these chickens, but from 

 the date believed them to be nearly, if not quite, full grown. 

 The gardener believed them to be spring chickens, about six 

 months old. 



Young Turkeys. 

 Mr. Richard H. Barlow, president of the Lawrence Natural 

 History Society, avers that when he was with his uncle, Samuel 

 Benson, at Manchester, Eng., about 1873, they had a half-grown 

 black and white kitten that was turned out to shift for itself. 

 It disappeared for nearly a year. Then they began to miss young 

 turkeys from valuable prize stock, from the size of quails up to 

 three pounds in weight. After about 40 had been lost, a trap 

 was set, baited with a young turkey, and an immense cat was 

 caught weighing 17^ pounds^ and marked exactly like the lost 

 kitten. ^Mr. Barlow is not sure how much of the weight was cat 

 and how much turkey, but no more turkeys disappeared. Any 

 cat that will catch large chickens and young turkeys is likely to kill 

 small full-grown fowls. 



Bantam Fowls. 

 Mr. Ross Vardon of Greenwood says that his cat caught a 

 full-grown bantam which she dropped when chased, but it died. 

 Mr. A. K. Learned of Gardner says that eight or nine years ago 

 his cat went to Mr. James Hemenway's place, some thirty rods 

 away, killed a bantam hen and brought it home. The cat's 

 career was cut short. Mr. James M. Pulley of Melrose, says that 

 about Dec. 27, 1914, he saw a black cat run crouching among 

 his bantams, pick up a two and one-half year old hen and carry 

 it off. He asserts that he has lost about a dozen, presumably in 



t Harrison Weir has recorded a cat weighiog 23 pounds. Other records exceed his. 



