Part 1.1 REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 121 



To PROTECT Feeding Stations and Nesting Boxes from 

 Climbing Animals. 

 Nesting boxes and feeding boxes mounted at least 7 feet from 

 the ground, upon iron rods or pipes, are not much molested 

 by climbing animals, although rats and probably squirrels can 

 climb up a 1-inch galvanized iron rod or pipe. The device 

 shown in the frontispiece is a sufficient safeguard against cats 

 if made large and placed at least 6 feet from the ground, but a 

 gray squirrel frequently has surmounted a similar device at our 

 experimental station at Wareham, and I have known one to go 

 up a tree trunk surrounded by a zinc band 3 feet wide. The 

 perfect inexpensive squirrel protector has yet to be devised. 



Control of the Cat. 



No publication that has appeared from this office has met 

 with greater appreciation or a larger demand than the bulletin 

 on the domestic cat as an enemy of birds. The first edition of 

 20,000 copies was exhausted almost at once. Offers to buy the 

 bulletins in large quantities came from many States, but these 

 orders could not be filled. No money was available for print- 

 ing another edition. Later a second edition of 8,000 copies was 

 published by subscription, and this is nearly exhausted. The 

 bulletin was reviewed by many newspapers and magazines, and 

 thus the immense destruction of birds by cats was brought be- 

 fore the public. This has resulted in unusual activity in the 

 suppression of the vagrant or vagabond cat, and some com- 

 munities have established a license or registration plan under 

 which unregistered cats are destroyed humanely by officers ap- 

 pointed for the purpose. Many people in many parts of the 

 United States are experimenting with different means of con- 

 trolling or confining their own cats during the nesting season of 

 birds. Some keep them in a chicken coop; others intern them 

 under the piazza; still others use a collar and a leash attached 

 to an overhead wire. Plate II. shows a successful arrangement 

 utilized in California. 



Since the European war began Germany has been unable to 

 supply this country with the usual quota of cat skins for the fur 

 market. This has resulted in a demand here for native cat 



