io8 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



only high enough to avoid flooding in rainstorms. Either 

 out of weather-beaten boards or flat stones, on top of this 

 elevation, make a rough box or chamber, just large enough 

 to hold comfortably the sort of animal it is designed to catch. 

 The top should be broad enough to keep out rain, and should 

 be removable, either a flat stone or a wide piece of board with 

 stones on it. Stones are piled around the box, to suggest 

 an ordinary stone-heap, but there should be passageways 

 built through the stones leading up to entrances to the 

 chamber near the top. Chaff is placed on the floor, and a 

 steel spring-trap is set in this. The animal follows the 

 tunnel, jumps down into the chamber, which is not deep, 

 and gets caught. No bait is needed. The trap is examined 

 by lifting the cover. This will work well also for animals 

 the size of skunks, if the trap is made large enough. A num- 

 ber of such traps should be maintained over the preserve. 



Stray Cats. The domestic cat is one of the worst kinds 

 of " vermin" with which one has to deal in increasing birds. 

 The various devices suitable for such animals will usually 

 reap a harvest of felines. It is astonishing how many cats 

 have taken to the woods, and are running wild and raising 

 wild offspring. On the Howell preserve, in a very remote 

 and mountainous section of Connecticut, eleven miles from 

 the nearest large town, Winsted, the keeper, William Whisk- 

 er, told me he had killed nearly 200 of these semi- wild 

 cats. Many people would be astonished if they knew how 

 many miles their pussy, so quiet and demure in the daytime, 

 had roamed by night, and how much game it had killed in 

 a year. 



Humanitarian Movement. The growing movement to 

 limit and control the number of cats is not a crusade against 

 pets, but is based upon motives of humanity and mercy. 

 There are thousands of homeless, hungry cats, in city, 



