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THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



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THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE BIRDS 



BY 



EDWARD H. FORBUSH 

 State Ornithologist of Massachusetts 



A mature cat in good hunting grounds kills on an average 

 fifty birds a year. Kittens and half grown cats do not catch 

 many birds, but the old cat that wanders off into the fields 

 and woods is terribly destructive. Mr. William Brewster tells 

 of an acquaintance in Maine who said that his cat killed about 

 fifty birds a year. When asked why he did not get another cat, 

 he said that it would be of no use, for they were all alike. Mr. 

 A. C. Dyke writes that his family owned a cat which was well 

 cared for and a particular pet. They watched it through one 

 season and found that it killed fifty-eight birds, including the 

 young in five nests. Nearly a hundred correspondents scat- 

 tered through all the counties of the state report the cat as one 

 of the greatest enemies of the birds. The reports that have come 

 in of the torturing and killing of birds by cats are absolutely 

 jsickening. The number of birds killed by them in this state is 

 appalling. It is quite true, however, that some cats do not kill 

 many birds, and that some intelligent or high-bred cats may be 

 taught not to kill any. Some cat lovers believe that each cat 

 kills on the average not more than ten birds a year; but I have 

 learned of two instances where more than that number were 

 killed in a single day, and another where seven were killed. 

 If we assume, however, that the average cat on the farm kills 

 but ten birds a year, and that there are two cats to each farm in 

 Massachusetts, we have, in round numbers, seventy thousand cats 

 killing seven hundred thousand birds annually. 



If we add to the cats kept on farms the enormous number 

 of village and city cats, many of which have good opportunities 

 for catching birds, we shall see the chief reason for the great mor- 

 tality to birds and their young about our villages and cities. If 

 cats are allowed their liberty at night during the nesting season, 



Fagfe two 



