THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 125 
In twenty-five years the stomachs of 50,000 birds have been examined 
by the Biological Survey, and it has been found that 50 species feed 
upon different varieties of caterpillars, 38 upon those species that 
devastate plant life, 50 upon the most destructive species of scale 
insects. Now, consider noxious weed seeds: The food of the mourning 
dove is 64 per cent weed seed, 27 per cent of the meadow-lark’s food is 
weed seed, 40 species of sparrows in the United States are seed-eaters, 
97 per cent of their food being seed. If, in Iowa, there are 10 sparrows 
to the square mile on a winter range of 200 days, the total annual 
consumption of weed seed in that state would be 875 tons. There are 
45 species and sub-species of woodpecker in the United States; two- 
thirds of their food is noxious insects, and they are the salvation of 
our forests. 
What is to be the answer? Can there be any doubt in the minds 
of right thinking people that it is to be the destruction of stray and 
useless cats as systematically and effectively as the fly has _ been 
swatted? 
It is estimated by Dr. Edward H. Forbush and Dr. George W. Field 
of Massachusetts that cats destroy annually in that state approximately 
2,000,000 birds. The Biological Survey estimates that the cats of New 
York kill 3,500,000 birds annually. While there has been no cat census 
of the entire country, Dr. Frank M. Chapman of the American Museum 
of Natural History believes that there are not less than 25,000,000 cats 
in the United States, and possibly twice that number. 
From all parts of the state people who have studied this problem 
are flocking to the support of the cat campaign. No man lives who 
knows or loves birds better than John Burroughs. ‘‘I am with you in 
the cat crusade,’’ he says. ‘‘I keep no cats and kill every stray cat 
I ean.’’ Theodore Roosevelt, who is president of the Bird Club of Long 
Island, has added his hearty endorsement to the movement. Every day 
adds another Forest, Fish and Game Association or Rod and Gun Club 
to the list. Among them may already be named the Tompkins County 
Fish and Game Club, the Irondequoit Fish and Game Protective Associ- 
ation of Rochester, the Erie County Society for the Protection of Birds, 
Fish and Game, the Schenectady County Fish and Game Protective 
Association, Audubon Societies wherever they are found, and the State 
Fish, Game and Forest League. 
A round-robin resolution is being circulated throughout the state 
and is gaining thousands of signatures. The resolution is as follows: 
Whereas, the surplus domestic cats of New York are, on account 
of their fondness for hunting, a deadly element of destruction to the 
wild birds and mammals of the state, especially nesting song birds, 
quail, young grouse, squirrels and rabbits; and 
Whereas, the constantly increasing dangers to that wild life renders 
it imperative that additional safeguards should immediately be thrown 
around it, now be it 
Resolved, that the Legislature of the State of New York be, and 
hereby is, urgently requested to enact at its next session a comprehen- 
sive law providing for the licensing of all valuable domestic cats, and 
the destruction of all unlicensed cats, by thorough and effective methods. 
The method of control that is proposed is that of a very moderate 
license fee of fifty cents for domestic cats. No cat that is not worth 
fifty cents is worth having around. The plan further provides for 
effective measures, through humane societies and in other ways, for 
eliminating the stray and vagrant animals that consume millions of 
insect-eating birds each year, and that are such prolific carriers of 
disease, 
