138 BIRD FRIENDS 



The cat is more dangerous to birds than is any native 

 mammal that roams our woods, for it is nocturnal, a 

 splendid climber, a good stalker, a strong leaper, and is 

 very quick and active. (E. H. Forbush, State Ornitholo- 

 gist of Massachusetts.) 



There is no wild bird or animal in the United States 

 whose destructive inroads on our bird population are 

 in any sense comparable to the widespread devastation 

 created by the domestic cat. (T. Gilbert Pearson, secre- 

 tary of the National Association of Audubon Societies.) 



The cat is acknowledged to be one of the most de- 

 structive of all the bird enemies and is, therefore, an ex- 

 pensive luxury. If crops are worth money, the birds that 

 save them from pest destruction are worth money, and 

 the cat takes money out of your pocket every time it 

 catches a bird. As birds decrease in numbers, insect pests 

 increase and eat our crops, plants and trees. (Charles 

 H. Pease, secretary of the Connecticut Commission of 

 Fisheries and Game.) 



Field naturalists and others who have studied condi- 

 tions surrounding our native birds, agree that the house 

 cat is as destructive to birds as all other natural enemies 

 combined. (A. K. Fisher, of the Bureau of Biological 

 Survey.) 



Taking into account bird life in general, the cat is un- 

 doubtedly the most destructive mammal we have, and 

 the aggregate number of birds annually killed by them is 

 enormous. (Henry W. Henshaw, chief of the United 

 States Bureau of Biological Survey.) 



In such thickly settled communities as our northern 

 States, from the Atlantic Coast to the sandhills of Kan- 

 sas and Nebraska, the domestic cat is probably the great- 

 est four-footed scourge of bird life. That cats destroy 

 annually in the United States several millions of very 

 valuable birds, seems fairly beyond question. (William 

 T. Hornaday, Director of New York Zoological Park.) 



