284 BIRDS IN LONDON 



CHAPTER XV 



THE CAT QUESTION 



The cat's imchangeable character — A check od the sparrows — 

 Number of sparrows in London — What becomes of the 

 annual increase — No natural check on the park sparrows — 

 Cats in the parks — Story of a oat at Battersea Park — Eabbits 

 destroyed by cats in Hyde Park — Number of cats in London 

 — Ownerless cats — Their miserable condition — How cats are 

 made ownerless — How this evil may be remedied — How to 

 keep cats out of the parks. 



As it will be necessary to show that, sooner or 

 later, the cat question will have to be dealt with 

 in a manner not pleasant for the cats, it may be 

 well to say at once that I have no prejudice 

 against this creature ; on the contrary, of all the 

 lower animals that live with or near us I admire 

 him the most, because of his incorruptibility, his 

 strict adherence to the principle ' to thine own 

 self be true.' He lives with but not exactly in 

 subjection to us. The coarser but more plastic 

 dog we can and we do in a sense unmake and 

 remake. Not so with the cat, who keeps to the 



