forbush] THE DOMESTIC CAT 397 



Number of Birds Killed in Various States. — "My published 

 statement, estimating the number of birds killed each year by the 

 farm cats of Massachusetts alone, was given on the basis of ten 

 birds per cat per year, and two cats per farm. On this basis the 

 farm cats of Massachusetts would kill about 700,000 birds each 

 year. Through a typographical error, which was corrected in a 

 later edition, the estimate allowed but one cat to a farm, but two 

 was the figure used in the calculation, and our recent canvass seems 

 to show that the farms average almost three cats each. The 

 estimate has been deemed excessive by some, but has been regarded 

 generally as conservative. Dr. George W. Field, chairman of the 

 Massachusetts Commission of Fisheries and Game, estimates that 

 there is at least one stray cat to every 100 acres in the State, 

 and that each kills on the average at least one bird every ten days, 

 through the season making the annual destruction of birds by 

 stray cats in the State approximate 2,000,000. Dr. A. K. Fisher, 

 in charge of Economic Investigations of the Biological Survey, 

 estimates that the cats of New York State destroy 3,500,000 

 birds annually. Mr. Albert H. Pratt calculates that the farm 

 cats of Illinois kill 2,508,530 birds yearly. Various estimates 

 have been made concerning the number of birds killed annually 

 by cats in New England. They vary from 500,000 to 5,000,000. 

 Considering the above figures my own seem fairly conservative. 



Extermination of Island Birds by Cats. — "Space will not allow 

 many details of the cats' destructiveness to birds on islands, 

 but there is room for the sequel to the story told by Mr. G. K. 

 Noble in the Warbler, of September 1, 19 13. He asserted that on 

 the south end of Muskeget Island a great Massachusetts colony 

 of sea birds protected by the town of Nantucket, the breeding 

 gulls and terns, had been nearly extirpated by cats. Mr. Howard 

 H. Cleaves wrote me in 19 14 that the warden in charge said that if 

 the cats continued to increase they would exterminate the entire 

 colony of some 45,000 birds within five years. All over that part 

 of the island the cats mostly inhabited could be seen the uneaten 

 bodies of terns killed on their nests, their heads torn off, and the 

 wings and feathers of those that had been eaten. The mangled 

 bodies of newly hatched young, as well as larger young, were found 

 scattered about profusely. There are no trees on the island, 

 therefore hawks and owls do not nest there, and do not remain 

 there during the nesting season of the birds. There are no 



