WHAT BIRDS DO FOR US 19 



the majority of which labor day and night to destroy the 

 enemies of the husbandipian, are persecuted unceasingly, 

 while that gigantic fraud — ^the house cat — is petted and 

 fed and given a secure shelter from which it may emerge 

 to spread destruction among the feathered tribe. The 

 diflPerence between the two can be summed up in a few 

 words: Only three or foiur birds of prey hunt birds when 

 they can procure rodents for food, while a cat seldom 

 touches mice if she can procure birds or young poultry. 

 A cat has been known to kill twenty young chickens in a 

 day, which is more than most raptorial birds desteoy in a 

 lifetime." 



Hawks and owls admirably supplement each other's 

 work. One group hunts while the other sleeps. The 

 owls usually remain in a chosen neighborhood through 

 the winter, while the hawks go south. We are never left 

 miprotected. In consideration of the overwhelming 

 amount of good these unthanked friends do us, can we 

 not afford to be to their faults a little blind? 



A Volunteer Health Department 



In the Southern states, Cuba, and the adjacent islands, 

 the great dark vultures that go sailing high in air express 

 the very poetry of motion; but siu-ely their terrestrial 

 habits have to do with the very prose of existence, for 

 self -constituted health officers are they, scavengers of the 

 fields, that rid them of putrefying animal matter. In- 

 stead of burying a dead chicken, dog, cat, or even a large 

 domestic animal, the easy-going Negro lets it lie where it 

 dropped, knowing full well that before it becomes offen- 

 sive the vultures will have begun to feed upon it. In 

 some of the smaller cities the vultures mingle freely with 



