File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17538423994).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo16amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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328 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL towards disposing of them than even a good cat will do in a year.' In spite of the fact that the cat is not a necessity, there will probably always be some who wish to keep cats either as pets or as mousers; but Mr. Forbush is of opinion that if ownerless cats could be eliminated and owned cats confined to the buildings or en- closures of their owners, the cat evil would be considerably lessened. It is not cruel to keep a cat in confinement. Cats kept in buildings, or brought up in narrow quarters, and well fed, are quite con- tented and will then be more likely to con- fine their hunting proclivities to rats and mice. Good feeding alone will not keep a cat from killing birds, but good feeding com- bined with confinement at night will make it less likely to go afield, especially if a good breakfast is provided before release in the morning. Ninety per cent of cats at present are allowed to roam at night, thus contract- ing colds and disease to infect the children 1 Those who do not know how to get rid of mice and rats are referred to Economic Biology Bulletin No. 1, Rals and Ral Riddance, procured from the Massachu- setts State Board of Agriculture, State House, Boston. and other members of the homes they visit, while they destroy more birds and game than rats and mice. Objections to proposed legislation, directed toward licensing owned cats and destroying vagrants, come chiefly from people who do not wish to pay the tax. Many cat lovers wel- come the idea as affording protection to owned cats and avoiding the suffering of others. This admirable little booklet, which is strongly recommended to the attention of nature lovers and cat owners, brings the dis- cussion to a close as follows;—"The claim of the cat to a place in our domestic life rests primarily on the fact that it is supposed to do for us, with little conscious effort on our part, the onerous and disagreeable task of destroy- ing small rodents. Insomuch as the creature fails in this, and in so far as it destroys other more useful forms of life, in such measure it becomes an evil and a pest. It will become an influence for good or ill according as we mold it, restrain it, and limit its activity. It is our duty to check with a firin hand its undue increase in domestication, and to elim- inate the vagrant cat as we would a wolf." M. H. p.
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C.lirlcsy iij Massarlius.Hs Sliilr liminl nf \,irunlliir,' On jMu.skeget Island a colony of gulls and terns, protected by the town of Nantucket, were almost entirely killed out by a few stray cats, their only oremies. Thousands of nest sites showed only egg shells and the scattered remains of parents

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