62 



varying hares or "white rabbits," so called. The cat is so de- 

 structive to rabbits that on Sable Island, off the coast of Xova 

 Scotia, which had been the home of these little animals for at 

 least half a century, the introduction of a few cats was followed 

 by the absolute extinction of the rabbit population. There is 

 abundant evidence of the rabbit-killing habit. Mr. Cassius R. 

 Tirrell of South Weymouth tells of a cat that brought home 7 

 young rabbits in two days. ISIr. Albert E. Shedd of Sharon 

 writes that he had a cat in 1910 that killed many rabbits, grouse 

 and some small birds; it brought in 4 cottontails in a single day. 

 Mr. A. K. Learned of Gardner tells of a cat that brought in 22 

 rabbits in one summer. Jones and Woodward record the con- 

 fession of a lady in a local paper that her cat, with kittens, 

 brought in in one week 26 mice, 19 rabbits, 10 moles, 7 young 

 birds and 2 squirrels, and they say that they have heard of cats 

 "a great deal worse. "^ 



Dr. William T. Hornaday tells in his interesting and useful 

 book, "Our Vanishing Wild Life," how in one year cats killed 

 nearly all the wild rabbits in the park — some eighty or ninety. 

 The cats were exterminated, and the rabbits slowly increased. 

 Several observers have reported a cat going out at dusk and 

 returning in a few minutes with a full-grown rabbit. My friend, 

 William C. Peterson of Canaveral, Fla., saw his cat kill one. 

 This cat frequently brought in adult cottontails, and its owner 

 desired to see how it overcame them. One evening, when he 

 saw one sitting in his garden, he took the cat out there. She 

 sprang on the rabbit, caught it with her teeth by the back of the 

 neck, and lying beside it caught its haunches with her hind claws 

 and straining hard stretched and apparently broke its neck. It 

 was all over in a moment. 



Moles and Shrews. 

 Cats kill many moles. This is reported by 132 observers. 

 Only 51 say that cats kill many shrews. Evidently many ob- 

 servers do not distinguish shrews from moles. Others admit 

 that they do not know the shrew. The short-tailed shrew, 

 Blarina brevicauda, closely resembles a mole in appearance, while 

 some of the smaller shrews might be mistaken for mice by the 

 casual observer. Cats kill considerable numbers of moles and 

 shrews, but they rarely eat them, as there seems to be some 

 disagreeable scent or taste about them. 



> JoQM, Owen, and Woodward, Marcus: The Gamekeeper's Notebook, London, 1910, pp. 263, 264. 



