CHAPTER VI 



PROTECTING THE BIRDS FROM THEIR NATURAL 

 ENEMIES 



. The foremost place among all song bird 

 destroyers must, as we have already said, be assigned 

 to the house cat, this half-wild beast of the woods that 

 climbs roofs as well as trees and never learns to dis- 

 tinguish between birds and mice. 



The most injurious cat in country districts is the 

 feralized cat, one that has returned to a wild life in the 

 woods. This creature lives on mice, gophers, birds, 

 and eggs. Young birds and eggs are, however, much 

 easier to catch than gophers and mice, and therefore 

 he lives largely on birds and eggs during the summer 

 months. Ground birds naturally suffer most by their 

 destructiveness. These cats should be shot, trapped, 

 or poisoned by every lover of birds and by every 

 sportsman. Some of them come to farmhouses in 

 very severe weather. Such occasions afford a good 

 opportunity to the farmer boy for the use of his gun. 

 I have heard of a pair of such feralized cats living in a 

 skunk hole during the severe winter of 1898-99. 



In town, city, and country, we have the tramp cat, 

 which goes from farm to farm, or from house to house, 

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