406 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



birds? Before them, likewise, was thrown a greatly in- 

 creased food supply. How did they respond? Of course 

 their reproductive capacity cannot compare with that of 

 plants or insects, but it is sufficient to allow of great in- 

 crease. Undoubtedly this increase did take place, and 

 today there are unquestionably more robins, song spar- 

 rows, and chipping sparrows than there were 300 years 

 ago. But unfortunately, birds require more than food. 

 They must have shelter for themselves and their nests 

 and the cultivated fields offer this to only very few 

 species. One more factor, perhaps the most important of 

 all, is necessary to bring 

 about an increase, and that 

 is a lessening of the num- 

 ber of their enemies. A- 

 long as there are carnivo- 

 rous animals to gobble up 

 the young as fast as they 

 flutter from the nest, or 

 predaceous birds to pounce 

 upon the adults as they in- 

 cubate, we can hope for 

 but small change in their 

 numbers. A reduction of 

 these enemies, however, 

 would undoubtedly cause 

 an immediate increase, for 

 few species are living up 

 1 1 the limit of their food 

 supply, and if necessary 

 this could be readily 

 augmented. 



Of the enemies of birds, 

 the lynx and the marten, 

 the mink and the weasel, 

 the fox and the raccoon 

 certainly decreased very 

 rapidly before the en- 

 croachments of agriculture 

 and are now rare in most 

 places. The hawks that 

 prey upon birds are like- 

 wise more scarce, so that 

 there is apparently no 

 natural reason why the 

 birds should not have 

 increased proportionately with 

 insects. But, sto for one 

 ber that for every lynx that has been shot, for 

 every fox that has been hounded, for every marten, mink 

 or weasel that has been trapped, there have been brought 

 in by civilized, unthinking man at least two dozen fero- 

 cious, bird-killing cats; black cats, white cats, maltese 

 cats, angora cats, house cats, barn cats, alley cats and 

 stray cats, all with 18 sharp, skin-ripping talons and :?0 

 flesh-tearing, bone-crunching teeth ; all with an inborn 

 instinct to hunt and to kill; unsatisfied by any amount of 

 food and, with few exceptions, every one of them turned 

 loose every night of the week to make the night hideous 

 with their love chants and gory with the blood of their 



the vegetation 

 minute and 



and the 

 remem- 



victims. If we could make a funeral pyre of the birds 

 killed during the month of June by cats alone, in the 

 United States, it would conceal the Washington 

 Monument. 



Data recently collected by E. H. Forbush, the State 

 ornithologist of Massachusetts, and the opinions of natu- 

 ralists all over the country prove the domestic cat to be 

 the greatest scourge to bird life in this country. Yet 

 most owners of cats feel little or no responsibility. If 

 a neighbor's cow gets into one's garden, or a neighbor's 

 dog into the sheep pen, there is a great uproar. The dog 



must be killed, damages 

 must be paid and the law 

 will uphold such a course. 

 If, however, the neighbor 

 puts his cat out at night to 

 shift for itself and, in the 

 early morning it comes to 

 one's garden and pounces 

 upon the wren gathering 

 spiders for its young or 

 springs upon the chipping 

 sparrow picking worms 

 from the cabbages or 

 climbs the vines and 

 snatches the young robins 

 from the nest on the porch, 

 nothing is said, nothing can 

 be done. No one is held 

 responsible but the cat and 

 the cat has merely followed 

 its instincts to hunt. 



When the neighbor's cat 

 has kittens, they make in- 

 teresting playthings for his 

 children, but when they 

 get big enough to scratch 

 and their food gets expen- 

 sive, he finds that he must 

 part with them. He is too 

 tender-hearted to kill them, 

 and so he puts them in a 

 basket and carries them to 

 the edge of town and drops 

 them over the fence into 

 the nearest woods to shift 

 for themselves and their bird killing begins. 



Later on the neighbor goes to the seashore and, being 

 very fond of his cat, he takes it with him. It is fine 

 for the cat to have this outing with a new roaming 

 ground, and the cat shows its appreciation by hunting 

 most of the time. When preparing to return home in the 

 fall, our neighbor is a little late in getting started for his 

 train, or he can't find the cat basket, or the cat is off hunt- 

 ing, and so, expressing his regrets that he should have 

 lost such a fine cat or wondering if it will recognize him 

 when he comes back next year, he starts for the city 

 and leaves the cat behind. 



Some day after the close of the season at such a resort, 

 go out in the morning after a light fall of snow and track 



AN EFFECTIVE SPARROW NET 



About twenty feet square, made of cheese cloth. It is raised into place 

 against the ivied walls after the sparrows have gone to roost and 

 when lowered it scrapes them from their perches. Over 500 have 

 been taken from one roost in a single night. The numbers of house 

 sparrows must be considerably reduced before great headway can be 

 gained in increasing our native birds. 



! 



