63 



Rats and Mice. 

 Many statements have been published recently to the effect 

 that not one cat in fifty or even one in a hundred kills rats. 

 These statements are at variance with my experience, as well as 

 with that of most of my correspondents, and they cannot be 

 founded on any careful investigation. Nevertheless, it is true 

 that many cats do not hunt rats. Dr. A. K. Fisher, in charge 

 of the economic investigations of the Bureau of Biological Survey, 

 United States Department of Agriculture, says : — 



It is impossible at present to obtain correct figures on this subject, but it 

 is safe to say that few persons in a normal lifetime run across more than 

 half a dozen cats that habitually attack rats. Occasionally a hunter-cat is 

 found which seems to delight in catching rats, gophers or ground squirrels. 

 It has been the common experience of the writer to find premises that were 

 well supphed with cats overrun with rats and mice. At a certain ranch house 

 in the west, he trapped twelve mice in his bedroom in a week, although eight 

 cats had access to the place. ^ 



Dr. G. M. Corput, another Government expert, in the United 

 States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, gives an 

 experience which seems to show that little dependence can be 

 placed on the cat as a rat exterminator. 



Ever>' quarantine officer is familiar with the old plea of shipmasters that 

 there is no use of fumigating the cabin of a vessel because there is a cat on 

 board wliich is an excellent ratter and renders it impossible for rats to live in 

 cabin. The enclosed pictures are the result of not believing this story. The 

 British steamship "Ethelhilda" arrived at this station INew Orleans Quar- 

 antine] March 18, from the west coast of Africa. The captain assured me 

 that it was impossible for any rats to be in the cabin of his vessel because of 

 the presence of an exceptionally good cat. The cabin was nevertheless 

 fumigated. Through the irony of fate the cat was forgotten. Then the 

 cabin was opened, and the enclosed picture shows the result. Every part of 

 the ship had many rats. The picture is limited, however, to what was found 

 in the cabin, one cat, twenty-four rats.^ 



In my experience of forty years only two of my osvn cats have 

 habitually attacked rats. Most of them did not trouble rats at 

 all, a few got one occasionally, but the best one on the farm 

 killed on the average about one a week, or over fifty a year. 

 Upon the arrival of this cat, the rats soon disappeared and were 

 not seen running about as before. A little careful investigation, 

 however, showed that they were nearly as numerous as ever, 

 but much shyer, keeping out of sight. At the end of the year, 



I Fisher, A. K.: Yearbook. U. S. Dept. of Agr., 1908, pp. 139, 190. 

 « Public Health Reports, Vol. 29, No. 18, April 17, 1914, p. 923. 



