IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



license, comes up, the only economic argument 

 your average legislator can see is on the other side. 

 The cats catch rats in the farmer's barn. We 

 mustn't do anything to lose the rural vote! The 

 congressional wag make's a funny speech about 

 pretty pussy and the old maids coming down-town 

 to get their licenses, the legislative assembly titil- 

 lates with mirth, and the bill is laid on the table. 

 It would all be rather amusing if it weren't so 

 serious. 



How serious it is a very brief survey of the 

 figures will show. The figures, too, may well be 

 taken from reports by Edward Howe Forbush, 

 State Ornithologist of Massachusetts, whose own 

 legislature has tabled a bill to license cats, with the 

 usual display of Sunday-supplement humor (but 

 the fight is not yet over). Dr. Forbush bases his 

 figures on the reports of over a hundred observers 

 throughout the state. "If we assume," he says, 

 "that the average cat on the farm kills but ten 

 birds in a year, and that there are but two cats on 

 each farm in Massachusetts, we have in round 

 numbers 70,000 cats, killing 700,000 birds an- 

 nually." As a matter of fact, there are many 

 more than 70,000 cats in Massachusetts, even on 

 the farms, and those which live near the open, even 

 in the suburbs, take a toll of bird life that is prob- 

 ably in excess of ten birds a year. A cat belonging 

 to a neighbor of mine, not a farm cat, but a pam- 

 pered house puss, brought twenty-six birds to the 

 veranda last summer, and I have to wage a constant 

 warfare on half a dozen sleek, well-fed house cats 

 which daily try to catch birds in my garden. Doc- 



