362 USEFUL BIRDS. 
to the introduction of domesticated species so long as they 
can be kept in subjection; neither can there be much danger 
in introducing game birds, except that they may replace our 
native species, which, rather, we should try to foster and 
increase in numbers; but there is often a possibility that 
any introduced bird or mammal that will bring no money to 
the pocket of the hunter or marketman may become a pest. 
We have had such an experience with the “English” Spar- 
row, and we may yet regret the more recent importation of 
the European Starling. The plague of rabbits in Australia 
and that of the mongoose in the Island of Jamaica illustrate 
the danger of introducing species. 
If the money, time, and thought that have been expended 
in this work by acclimatization societies and by individuals 
could have been utilized in protecting, domesticating, and 
propagating useful native species, it might have given better 
results. 
INTRODUCED FOUR-FOOTED ENEMIES. 
Cats. 
We have already introduced into this country a terrible 
scourge to birds, — the domestic cat. My statement hereto; 
fore published, that the mature cat in good hunting grounds 
kills, on the average, fifty birds a year, is certainly within 
bounds. Kittens and half-grown cats do not catch many 
birds, but the old cat that wanders off into the fields and 
woods is terribly destructive. Of course where there are 
many cats each one cannot kill so many birds, for there are 
not enough birds to furnish each cat its full quota. Mr. 
William Brewster tells of an acquaintance in Maine who said 
that his cat killed about fifty birds a year. When asked 
why he did not get another cat, he said that it would be of 
no use, for they were all alike. Mr. A.C. Dike writes that 
his family owned a cat which was well cared for and a par- 
ticular pet. They watched it through one season, and found 
that it killed fifty-eight birds, including the young in five 
nests. Nearly a hundred correspondents scattered through 
all the counties of the State report the cat as one of the 
greatest enemies of birds. The reports that have come in 
of the torturing and killing of birds by cats are absolutely 
