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THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



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THE ROBBER OF BIRD HOMES 



BY 



T. GILBERT PEARSON 

 Secretary National Association of Audubon Societies 



There is no wild bird or animal in the United States whose 

 destructive inroads on our bird population is in any sense com- 

 parable to the widespread devastation created by the do- 

 mestic cat. 



This creature captures wild birds at all seasons of the year, 

 but is particularly active in catching young birds immediately 

 after they have left the nest and before they have gained suf- 

 ficient strength of wing to escape. 



It is idle for lovers of cats to contend that it is only the 

 half-wild and unfed animals which indulge in bird killing. It 

 is as natural for a cat to want to kill a bird as it is for a 

 child to want candy. 



I have personally known cats which received the best of 

 attention, and for whose happiness the culinary possibilities 

 of the household were exhausted, to stalk birds on the lawn 

 with apparently as much eagerness as a starving leopard might 

 creep upon a fawn. 



Putting bells on cats would doubtless save the lives of many 

 birds. A surer safeguard would, of course, be to keep the 

 cats shut up, especially during the spring months when the birds 

 are engaged in rearing their young; but the only absolute way 

 to stop the depredations of Grimalkin is to take him to the 

 electric chair or the guillotine, although of course this would 

 be extreme treatment, the general application of which could 

 not be advocated. 



FIGHT BETWEEN DEER AND COUGAR. 



Mr. Ben S. Patton, of Estacada, recently sent to the office of The Ore- 

 gon Sportsman with the following explanation, a cougar skull which was 

 originally found by August Schonberg in the mountain region between Fish 

 Creek and the south fork of the Clackamas. 



Pagre four 



