THE GAME BREEDER 



11 



tected from their enemies, a single pair 

 might produce an enormous number in a 

 few years. Hence the necessity for 

 checking such increase promptly by kill- 

 ing all superfluous kittens soon after 

 birth. An undue increase of the species 

 must occur otherwise as cats have very 

 few effective natural enemies in the New 

 England States. 



Vagabond Cats in the Country. 



Wild or feral house cats that pass their 

 lives mainly in the fields or woods are 

 seen rarely by human eyes, except by 

 those of the hunter or naturalist. There- 

 fore many people who have never in- 

 vestigated the matter, and never have 

 seen such cats, find it hard to believe 

 that they are numerous enough to be a 

 great menace to wild life, but nearly all 

 my most observant correspondents who 

 roam the woods and fields report traces 

 of many cats. 



On 20 Acres. 



Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, Fairfield, 

 Conn., president of the Connecticut Au- 

 dubon Society, writes that in seven 

 months, twenty-eight cats have been shot 

 on her twenty acres, although the six 

 nearest neighbors keep none. 



Ye Historick Cat of 1498. 



The cat is surely most like to the Leo- 

 parde, and hathe a great mouthe, and 

 sharp teeth, and a long tongue, plyante, 

 thin and subtle. He lappeth therewith 

 when he drinketh, as other beates do that 

 have the nether lip shorter than the over ; 

 for, by cause of unevenness of lips, such 

 beates suck not in drinking, but lap and 

 lick as Aristotle saith, and Plinius also. 



Bird Slaughter by Cats. • 



Dr. Anne E. Perkins of Gowanda, N. 

 Y., who has had a long experience with 

 pets, tells of a cat which brought in 

 meadowlarks, an oven-bird, two hum- 

 ming birds and a flicker within a few 

 days. 



Birds Killed Per Cat. 



Numerous correspondents have known 

 individual cats to kill from 2 to 8 birds 



in a day, but the average is much small- 

 er than this. Two hundred and twenty- 

 six correspondents report the maximum 

 number of birds they have known to be 

 killed by 1 cat in a day, and the day's 

 work for these 226 cats is 624 birds, or 

 2.7 birds per cat per day. 



Game Birds Killed By Cats. 



Perhaps the game bird most commonly 

 killed by the cat in southern New Eng- 

 land is the bobwhite. This species, one 

 of the most useful of all birds to the 

 farmer, highly valued as a game bird, 

 frequents grass fields, gardens, grain 

 fields, and weed and bush thickets where 

 the cat hunts. Sportsmen say that they 

 very often find cats in "quail covers," 

 and not infrequently see them with the 

 birds in their mouths. 



Fond of Pheasants and Partridges. 



Since the introduced ring-necked 

 pheasant has become common in Massa- 

 chusetts, many reports of the killing of 

 these birds by cats have been received. 

 They are taken from the time the chicks 

 are hatched until they are full-grown. 



The Cat on the Game Preserve. 



All experienced gamekeepers regard 

 this animal as one of the most vicious 

 and despicable of the so-called vermin 

 which often render the raising of game 

 bird a precarious calling. Prof. Clif- 

 ton F. Hodge, a pioneer in the success- 

 ful artificial rearing of grouse and bob- 

 whites, was almost forced by cats to 

 give up his experiments in Worcester, 

 Mass. 



A Day's Work. 



Female cats with kittens often are 

 very destructive to birds. I have known 

 such a cat in June to destroy within 

 twenty-four hours the young in six nests 

 and also two of the parent birds, but 

 this is the maximum. 



Also Fond of Chickens. 



Mr. Charles M. Field of Shrewsbury, 

 has known a cat to kill eighteen chicks in 



