628 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May i8, 1912 
The Problem of the Cat. 
West Haven, Conn., April 25. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: On a wild tract of land in Con¬ 
necticut used as a game preserve remote from 
any town or village, during the first year and 
a half of. its recent operation, the keeper in 
charge killed forty roving cats, and during the 
next year two dozen more. Many of these were 
evidently homeless, having relapsed into the con¬ 
dition of wild animals. Others were house cats, 
accustomed to roam mostly by night miles from 
their homes. All were preying on birds and 
wild game. This is no exceptional case, but 
typical of what goes on everywhere. 
People often wonder why our song and in¬ 
sectivorous birds which are protected by law do 
not increase. The real wonder is that they have 
not long since been exterminated with an army 
of hunting felines, especially in the vicinity of 
towns, roaming everywhere in the breeding sea¬ 
son, searching for nests and young birds. If 
the nest is on the ground or anywhere that a 
cat can climb, the case is almost hopeless. Even 
if out of reach, the young, when learning to fly, 
are almost sure to flutter down and get caught. 
If one will look around near home, he will 
often find empty nests which have been robbed 
of eggs or young. 
The cat is a born hunter, and nearly all of 
them hunt for wild game, even though their 
owners do not suspect it. It is a very moderate 
estimate to assume that each cat, on the aver¬ 
age, slays one bird a week, say fifty each year. 
Think of the countless thousands of useful 
birds thus killed in the United States every 
year! 
In most parts of Europe birds are said to be 
much more abundant than with us, though they 
are shot and trapped much more freely. A well 
known naturalist who has traveled much in those 
countries considers this due in considerable 
measure to the comparative absence of cats. It 
seems to him a local peculiarity of the Ameri¬ 
can people to tolerate in their homes numbers 
of these half wild animals, a queer, abnormal 
fad. In Europe the possession of cats is said 
to be regulated by law. 
A common barbarity is the practice of aban¬ 
doning cats by people changing their residence, 
leaving them to suffer and to prey upon society. 
In pity I have taken in these homeless starving 
creatures and fed them. At one shore resort in 
Connecticut I have been told that there are from 
fifty to one hundred homeless cats, abandoned 
by summer cottagers, eking out a wretched exist¬ 
ence around the piers.' 
With us the cat has no standing in law, and 
is not recognized as property. No one can ob¬ 
tain redress if his cats are poisoned or shot. 
Yet even this permission to kill does not abate 
the nuisance. Alike from the standpoint of kind¬ 
ness to animals, of the owner of the cat, and 
of the lover of birds, is it not high time that 
this matter should be regulated by law, how 
many and what sort of cats one may keep, how 
they must be treated and restrained? Any one 
who is sufficiently responsible to be permitted 
by society to keep a cat ought to have public 
spirit enough to be glad to pay a small license 
fee for the privilege. This could be attended 
to by the same officials in charge of dog licenses. 
A fund would thus be provided for the mainte¬ 
nance of the work and for the protection and 
attracting of wild birds to help save our foliage, 
fruit, gardens and crops. 
Hitherto this matter has been laughed out of 
court, but the problem has now ceased to be .a 
joke. The many powerful organizations of 
sportsmen are beginning to realize that quail, 
grouse and woodcock cannot be expected to raise 
many young amid this growing host of mauraud- 
ing felines. If they and humane people gen¬ 
erally will actively take up this matter, we can 
soon get wise legislation capable of enforcement. 
Meanwhile birds are now beginning to nest and 
will be under way with family cares nearly all 
summer, but particularly in June. It is surely 
a duty to society of everyone owning cats to 
dispose of all but one, or at most two, and to 
keep petted pussy under restraint, feeding it 
properly, keeping it shut up at night, and not 
allowing it to roam at large. If we keep a cat 
we should be kind to it, but also be broad enough 
to be considerate of our neighbors and of the 
broods of helpless little birds. 
Herbert K. Job, State Ornithologist. 
The Season in Connecticut. 
Packer, Conn., iMay 9. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Our spring is lazily lingering in the 
lap of winter. We have frosts many mornings 
and ice on the many little pools since May i. 
Much more rain than usual has fallen. The 
brooks, rivers and ponds are fuller than for years, 
and farmers far behind with their spring work. 
Nearly all birds were late in arriving from 
their winter homes; the bluebirds arriving on 
March ii, nine days later than the two previous 
springs. Robins were over two weeks later than 
usual. The brown thrashers and whippoorwills 
were the only exception to this rule that I have 
noticed, both these appearing within a few days. 
While late, all fruit and nut-bearing trees and 
shrubs appear to be budding for an unusually 
heavi' crop. The oaks now look like they would 
have a record-breaking crop of acorns, and wild 
berries, buckle and blue, are also after the rec¬ 
ord apparently. The several years of exceptional 
drouth, 1911 the worst of all, with a comparative 
rest for the fruiting trees, probably is in some 
degree the cause. Peach trees are the one ex¬ 
ception, the buds having been badly winter killed. 
I saw a bevy of eight quail fly by me in the 
field on Ma}^ 2, the first time I had seen them 
since mid-winter, when their tracks in the snow 
showed there were eleven of them, the same as 
at the end of the shooting season. None of this 
bevy were killed by hunters, I am certain, as 
they fed in a buckwheat field west of my house, 
and in a thicket of chinquapin or scrub oak east 
of me, and roosted in an open field between the 
two feeding places. I saw and counted them 
frequently during the fall and early winter. A 
loss of only three during the past three or four 
months was surely a light one. It was probably 
three times that from hatching time to open sea¬ 
son. This speaks well for our section as to 
hawks and other quail-loving vermin. Our win¬ 
ter was exceptionally cold, the coldest for many 
years, but only a few inches of snow fell, and 
quail could get grit to grind their acorns on very 
few. days. 
My neighbor saw a bevy of twelve quail since 
the first of the month, a bevy he has seen often 
during the winter, and which has suffered little 
if any loss. 
Yesterday morning I heard for the first time 
in 1912 the melodious love song, “bob white,” 
and before noon it could be heard in every direc¬ 
tion. In the afternoon I took a five or six-mile 
walk, hearing the cheering song wherever I 
traveled. One man told me he had heard it 
for the first time that morning, while another 
said he had heard it four or five days earlier. 
In 1910 I heard the song first on April 21, but 
the season was far more than sixteen days 
earlier than is this. 
I hope your readers who live in the country 
are observing quail as to their earliest love-mak¬ 
ing and will report in 3'our columns. 
There is no doubt quail are more abundant in 
this section than for several years at this sea¬ 
son, and with a favorable breeding season they 
ought to be in large supply “in the brilliant 
autumn time.” E. P. Robinson. 
New Mexico. 
Roswell, N. M., iMay 10.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: “Camino Real,” the automobile' route 
of New Mexico, open to the sportsmen, is a won¬ 
derful land. As you enter at Raton on the bor¬ 
der of Colorado you at once find the mountains 
of Green and Palo-Blanco, Tripod and others. 
Mountain lion and the wildcat tribe will interest 
the rifle hunter. Mountain quail or “blue bob,” 
wild turkey, band tail pigeon and many strange 
mountain birds are found. On the south many 
interesting valleys are found. Mountain streams 
afford good water. The headwaters of Pecos 
River and its valley carry the auto over hard 
watered roads. A few antelope are seen, but 
being protected are getting less in numbers, as 
the lobo wolf reduces their ranks every month. 
At Port Stanton are found the wonder caves of 
the West, as yet unexplored. For many years 
good quail shooting has been found near the old 
fort, and the many springs forming small streams 
afford good fishing. Black and rock bass both 
take the fly or spoon. 
On the south to Roswell is found a level plain 
where cool winds make touring a luxury. From 
Roswell the route extends to El Paso, Texas, 
crossing the Sacramento Mountains. Many golden¬ 
eye ducks are found in the high lakes. Moun¬ 
tain lions are reported being killed by tourists 
from California and Texas. From El Paso, 
Texas, the old Santa Fe trail is opened; where 
bridges are needed the counties have built them. 
The route is posted as far as Albuquerque, and 
is being graded, to the wonder of the cliff 
dwellers. The deep valleys are alive with large 
wolves, lions and some bears. The black-tail 
deer, once so numerous, have been destroyed by 
the lions and wolves. A natural game preserve 
is here found, be it State or by private enter¬ 
prise. It is just the place to build a lodge and 
a game preserve where sportsmen could for a 
reasonable rent obtain a week’s or a few days 
shooting. 
With mild winters and coOl days all summer 
in high altitudes, no equal can be found. The 
climate is just suited to the pheasant or Hun¬ 
garian partridge. Twenty years ago the writer 
found many elk and black-tail deer. Mountain 
sheep are seen at times, but they are very rare, 
and the rocks are very rough and sharp for the 
sportsmen of Texas. On “Camino Real,” Ne'W 
Mexico’s highway, are seen big automobiles from 
Colorado, California and Texas, and a rifle case 
is noticed on every one. Almo. 
