BIRD PROTECTION IN CANADA 155 



A family, residing in the summer on a little island, about three-quarters 



of an acre, in the Rideau lakes, had one or two cats. A visitor there 



induced his friends to leave the cats at home. Then he began to put 



up nesting boxes to attract the tree swallows, and they came at the 



first invitation. Up to 1915, he never got enough boxes up on that 



island to accommodate the swallows who came. But this year he got up 



a few more boxes than were needed, and, in seventeen boxes, he had 



fifteen pairs of swallows on an island that formerly had two cats and 



five pairs of birds. In addition he had three pairs of orioles, two pairs 



each of five other species and one pair each of five others, a total in 



five years of thirty-three nesting pairs on three-quarters of an acre 



from a beginning of five pairs. I think that was a very creditable 



result indeed. 



Of course one great help to him was banishing the 



Destructiveness ^^ts. The cat, I think, comes fairly under the iurisdic- 

 of Cats . , , ^ ■ ^ ■ ■ -r . , . 



tion of the Conservation Commission. 1 wish it came 



legally under such jurisdiction and that the Commission would appoint 



me Cat Ranger. If that were done I can assure you the number of 



cats would suffer a very serious diminution every year because, as 



you know, every cat spends most of its time in an effort to kill. It 



kills not only the mice but every bird it can possibly catch and, as I 



look at it, each insectivorous bird killed by a cat is worth more than 



the cat itself. I have proved that there are some uses for cats. Buried 



under apple trees I have eaten them as apples, buried under rose bushes 



I have picked them in the form of roses. That is a very satisfactory 



way of disposing of cats. While we have the semi-wild domestic cat 



we cannot have a very serious increase in birds and I think it is a fair 



subject for the Conservation Commission to take up. 



jj . There are some very interesting possibilities in the 



Nesting in way of bird protection in the Northwest, particularly 



Chimney nj^j^j^ regard to the birds whose nesting places are in 



holes in hollow trees. One such, the American golden-eye, has nested 

 for four years in the chimney of the residence of Mr. R. B. Price, 

 Camrose, Alberta. Mr. Price knows when the birds are hatched 

 because the duck then sits on top of the chimney and waits for the 

 youngsters to elimb up and project themselves over the edge, to roll 

 down the roof and bang on the ground, which never seems to hurt them 

 at all. In 1915, however, the humanitarian instincts of the neighbours 

 got the better of them and they carried the little fellows down in a hat. 

 I have been urging Mr. Price to put up another dummy chimney in the 

 hope of getting two pairs of birds, and in the meantime I have heard 

 that his experience has been duplicated in Saskatchewan. 



