BIRD ENEMIES INTRODUCED BY MAN 137 



by many other thousands of pet cats, which hunt 

 birds, not so much from hunger as from a natural 

 instinct to kill birds. 



Most people do not realize the harm done by 

 cats because they work quietly, on the sly, chiefly 

 in the early morning, before most people have 

 arisen. Mr. Forbush's investigations showed that 

 about ninety per cent of the cats are allowed to 

 roam at night. At earliest daybreak they attack 

 the young birds in the nest, frequently killing also 

 the mother bird on the nest. And then, too, the 

 nests which the cats attack are frequently so well 

 hidden that a person who is not specially watching 

 does not see the tragedies that are being enacted 

 there. 



The control of the cat, as one of the chief enemies, 

 if not the chief enemy, of bird life, is one of the 

 pressing questions to be solved by those interested 

 in bird-protection. In order that the harm done by 

 cats may be more generally appreciated, below is 

 given a list of quotations from a number of bird- 

 students. These quotations will suffice to show that 

 the views expressed hi these pages are not simply 

 those of the author alone: 



The most important problem confronting bird pro- 

 tectors to-day is the devising of a proper means for the 

 disposition of the surplus cat population of this country. 

 (Frank M. Chapman, Curator of Birds in the American 

 Museum of Natural History and author of several well- 

 known bird books.) 



