70 Bird - Lore
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A Bi-mnnthly Magazine Devoted to the Study and Protection oi Bird:
OFFICIAL nRGAN us run nonunox societies
Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Vol IV
Published April 1 1902 No
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Bird—Lore's Motto: A at d in the Bur/l 1‘: Wth Tam in the Hand.
BIRD-LUKE has published no more help- ful articles for tield students than Mr. Brew- ster’s ‘Voices of a New England Marsh,’ to which we gladly devote a large part of this number, postponing to a subsequent issue other articles announced for April.
The Cat Question
The most important problem confronting bird protectors today is the devising of a proper means for the disposition of the surplus cat population of this country. By surplus population we mean that very large proportion of cats which do not receive the rare due a domesticated or pet animal and which are, therefore, practically dependent on their own etiorts for food.
We are not prepared at present to give this subject the attention it deserves. but the introduction of a bill in the Massachusetts legislature to require the licensing of cats impels us to say a word in favor oi a meas- ure which we have long thought would go tar toward solving the cat problem.
In the absence of data showing the num- ber of cats in this country, common know- ledge of Tabby's tavored place on every heartll~stoue, together with her well-known talent for the reproduction of her kind, perr mits us to form some conception of her
abundance; and a further knowledge of her widespread distribution in field and forest would add largcly to our most con- servative estimate of her numbers. own opinion there are not less than twenty~ live million cats in the United States and there may be double that number.
How many of these cats are domesticated, in the trite sense of the word, and how many gain their living by the strength of their claws we cannot say, but, in any event, it should be remembered that oceans of cream and miles of blue ribbon have not subdued Pussy‘s instincts for the chase not destroyed her skill as a hunterr A house- cat has been actually known to kill fifty birds in a season and a naturalist, than whom none is better qualified to judge, believes that five hundred thousand birds are annually killed by cats in New England alone! Apply these figures to the cats and the country at large and the result is appal- ling.
We would not, however, urge the exter— mination of cats. Wholly aside from the pleasure they give to lovers of pets, cats are the natural enemies of those other introduced evils, rats and mice. The cat is an auto~ matic, self~setting mouse-trap and as such she commends herself to housekeepers who perhaps may not be otherwise favorably impressed hy ller peculiar personality.
But we do strongly advocate such a re- duction of the cat population as would fol» low the passage oi this proposed Massachu- setts law with its required annual licensing of cats, its line imposed on car owners who do not comply with its provisions, and its instructions to the proper authorities to kill all,non-ltcensctl cats.
Such a law should be supported not only by bird lovers but by Cat lovers. By the former because tlIE restriction of the cat population to the well-ted Tabby of the fireside would not only greatly reduce the cat population, but would, or should, do away with its worst element, the cats who hunt for a living. It should be supported by the latter because its enforcement would put an end to the existence of the many starving, homeless felines of our cities whose happiest fate is sudden death.
In our
