72 
FOREST AND STREAM 
lODTOI^BAlL ©© IMI[MlIEIN1T 
on happenings of note in the outdoor world 
LICENSE THE CAT 
G RATIFYING it is to all bird lovers that there is a grow¬ 
ing interest in the destruction of birds caused by domestic 
animals—as well as by man. At the moment this interest 
seems to be largely concentrated on the house cat, which beyond 
question is one of the greatest dangers that our local birds have 
to encounter. # 
No one who has read Dr. Forbush’s admirable paper on the 
cat can fail to comprehend something of the harm this animal 
does. At nightfall, or in the early morning, it is sometimes 
seen trotting toward the house with a look of conscious innocence 
and satisfaction in its general bearing, yet no doubt it has spent 
the hours of twilight or of dawn in hunting the wild birds near 
the house. 
Better than most people, the gunner, who penetrates the woods 
and thickets in his search for game, knows of the wanderings 
of the domestic cat. Oftentimes his dog points it. Oftentimes 
he comes on it lying in the sun, sleeping off the effects of some 
hearty meal which it has made on two or three fat sparrows, a 
woodcock, or a quail. 
One or two bills have been drawn for introduction into the 
next New Jersey legislature, the purpose of 
which is to license the cat. The drafts, which - 
we have seen, are not clear. The provisions 
are obscure, and would require interpreta¬ 
tion by a court. Moreover, one bill merely 
permits the killing of non-licensed cats. In¬ 
stead of this, its language should be man¬ 
datory; it should be the duty of the proper 
officials to kill such non-licensed cats. At 
the annual meeting of the Fish, Forest and 
Game League, at Buffalo, New York, held 
early in December, resolutions were intro¬ 
duced requesting the New York legislature 
at its next session to enact a comprehensive 
law providing for the licensing of all valu¬ 
able domestic cats, and the destruction of 
all non-licensed cats. This resolution was 
supported in a ringing speech by Mr. Wilson, 
of Glens Falls, who introduced it, and the 
League put itself on record as heartily sup- — 
porting the movement. Cats and dogs are 
naturally hunting animals, and will hunt if they have the oppor¬ 
tunity. The dog is trained all over the civilized world to hunt, 
and in certain countries cats also are used as hunting animals. 
It is necessary for the protection of the birds, so useful to the 
farmer, that both cats and dogs should be controlled. 
We pass laws forbidding ourselves and our young people to 
kill certain birds or to destroy their nests; we forbid the 
importation of certain mammals that destroy—and in some 
places have exterminated—ground nesting species, yet we turn 
loose, to work their own will, our domestic animals whose 
nature it is to hunt, and who will hunt if they get the chance. 
It is quite time that the sportsmen of all the states impress 
upon their legislators the importance of the control of the cat 
and dog with relation to bird protection. 
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 inceasing 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 ^ ork be, and hereby is, urgently 
requested to enact at its next session a com¬ 
prehensive law providing for the licensing 
of all valuable domestic cats, and the destruc¬ 
tion of all unlicensed cats, by thorough and 
effective methods. Resolution presented at 
the annual meeting of the Fish, Forest and 
Game League of New York at Buffalo, 
December, 1916. 
or in affording opportunity to display skill beyond the attainment 
of the ordinary. 
Be this as it may, standards have been established. It would 
require too much space to print here the entire creed of the 
sportsman, but all the divisions and sub-divisions are not to be 
held as safe from attack. For instance, Dr. Edward Breck, an 
admitted authority, and one of the very elect among sportsmen, 
rides roughshod in his article in this issue over the theory that 
caste is lost irretrievably should one knock over an occasional 
partridge “settin’ ” instead of flying. 
The doctor has been moved to wrath because some one in 
these columns impugned moose calling as unsportsmanlike. He 
retorts that moose calling is as ethical, and more so, than getting 
your dog to seek out birds for you, instead of finding them 
yourself, and develops his argument along several similar lines. 
There you are. Can it be that all these good fellows of the 
gun and rod clan are open to accusation, each by the other, of 
practices in their particular recreation that may be stigmatized 
as unethical, or unfair? 
We confess an unwillingness to act as a superior court in this 
case, but we would like mighty well to sit by and hear the evi¬ 
dence and the arguments, and these pages, in which so many of 
the momentous issues of American sport.have 
- been discussed and decided, are open to the 
witness who wants to say something, or the 
advocate who desires to be heard. 
As a witness—not as a judge—we might 
remark, having the advantage of first start, 
that Dr. Breck does strike the right keynote 
in decrying that fanatical adherence to prin¬ 
ciple, illustrated in the action of the man 
who, being a bad shot, will yet persist in try¬ 
ing for his game flying, with the result that 
he gets little or none—which is to be de¬ 
plored—but with the really serious and dam¬ 
nable certainty of imposing suffering and set¬ 
ting at naught the purpose of Nature. In 
a word, if a man cannot shoot straight, and 
will not learn how, he will do less harm by 
going out and potting a bird or two for his 
immediate necessities than by inflicting mis- 
- ery on animate creatures through a mistaken 
sense of adhering to a creed the first prin¬ 
ciples of which he does not understand, else he would not be 
found in a game covert with a gun in his hand. 
(( EF YOU SHOOT 'EM SETTIN '" 
T HE ethics of sportsmanship call for fair play. In practice 
this means giving the game a chance, not only in pursuit, but 
in propagation as well. Some people may argue that a strict 
analysis of the doctrine to which so many of us profess adher¬ 
ence reveals an underlying basis of selfishness, expressed either 
in a desire to preserve that which gives us individual pleasure, 
W HA T IS A GAME LA W ? 
G ENERAL opinion seems to be that game laws are only a 
good natured concession to a few amiable people with a 
weakness for hunting and fishing, and an uncertain follow¬ 
ing of loafers too lazy to do anything else. It is this opinion 
that has been responsible for bringing about the chaotic and 
unsatisfactory conditions existing to-day. It is unfortunate also 
that the sportsmen themselves have had something to do in 
creating this feeling. 
All the rod anglers who have lived in and around New York 
City for the past hundred years could not if they had fished 
every day made more than a passing impression on the vast 
schools of fish that formerly swam past our shores. It is not the 
rod angler who does the damage. Nevertheless man is the 
guilty party, for it is his disturbance of nature’s laws, his pro¬ 
pensity to make money for himself at the expense of the future 
generations that has strung a barrier of nets all along the 
Atlantic coast, and that has sent him out to sea to take every¬ 
thing, large or small, that swims. 
