364 USEFUL BIRDS. 
Possibly no individual cat can kill as many birds in a 
season as a single Cooper’s Hawk, but there are probably a 
hundred cats in the State to each bird Hawk. A friend who 
was raising Pheasants near a village was obliged to kill more 
than two hundred cats in a few years. Another Pheasant 
raiser, far from.any village, found it necessary to kill about 
two hundred wandering cats the first year. He was troubled 
by Hawks also, but the number seen and killed was com- 
paratively small. Such evidence goes to show that the cat 
is particularly attracted by young birds. Dogs are less 
destructive than cats, but they kill some birds, and eat 
some birds’ eggs. 
NATIVE FOUR-FOOTED ENEMIES. 
There is something to be said against the fox, raccoon, 
mink, skunk, and weasel as enemies of birds, but none of 
these animals do much harm unless they are unusually abun- 
dant. In that case any one of them may become pernicious. 
This is most true of the fox and the weasel and least true 
of the skunk, which is a great insect killer. Nevertheless, 
the fox and the weasel kill many mice and other small mam- 
mals, and so are of some service to the farmer. The relation 
of squirrels to birds is more important. 
Squirrels. 
Some individual squirrels are habitual nest robbers. This 
includes all species, but the red squirrel is the worst cul- 
prit. Where squirrels have the nest-robbing habit they 
may do more harm among birds than any other mammal 
except the cat. They are active, can climb to almost any 
bird’s nest, and can defend themselves when attacked by the 
parent birds. Red squirrels and gray squirrels will rob 
nests either on the ground or in trees, taking eggs or young 
as they find them. The chipmunk usually molests only those 
nests that are on or near the ground. : 
The squirrels about my home in Wareham have this habit 
to some extent. It may have been acquired, but in one 
case, at least, it seems to have been inherited or instinc- 
tive. Some young red squirrels were taken from the nest 
