Page 96 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

74 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
become so scarce that their slaughter by house cats would demand legis- lative action in the states.
In considering the hunting cat, let us call in a credible witness of the effectsofdomesticcatsonthebobwhite. Thefollowingisaneye-witness report, by Ernest B. Beardsley, in Outdoor Life for April, 1912. The locality was Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas.
In the meantime, old Queen was having a high old time up ahead, some hundred feetbythen,runningupthebankandbackdowninthedraw. Wehadhardlycaught up when up goes Mr. Savage's gun and he gives both barrels. I had seen nothing up to date, but I didn't have long to wait, for by the time I got up to him and the dog, they were both in the high grass and had a great, big, common gray maltese house-cat; and Queen had a half-eaten quail that Mr. Cat was busy with when disturbed.
Well, we followed the draw across the field and got nine of a covey of sixteen that had been ahead of Mr. Cat; and about four o'clock that evening we killed another white-and-gray cat. Wliile driving home that night, Mr. Savage told me that he had killedfiftyormoreinthreeorfouryears. Theywillgetinadrawfulloftumble-grass, on a cold day when quail don't like to fly, and stay right with them; and even after feeding on two or three, they will lie and watch, and when the covey moves, they move. When eating time comes around they are at it again, and to a covey of young birds they are sure death to the whole covey.
Well, Will told me never to overlook a house-cat that I found as far as a quarter of a mile from a farm or ranch, for if they have not already turned wild, they are learninghoweasyitistohuntandliveongame,andarealmostasbad. Wefound Mr. Black-and-White Hunter had eaten two quail just before we killed him that evening. IwouldrathernotwritewhatMr.Savagesaidwhenwefoundtheremains of a partly-eaten bird.
My advice is, don't let tame cats get away when found out hunting; for the chances are they have not seen a home in months, and maybe years,—and say! but they do get big and bad. When you meet one, give it to him good, and don't letyourdogrunuptohimuntilheisoutforkeeps. Ilearnedafterwardsthatwas how Will knew it was a cat. Queen had learned to back off and call for help on cats some years before.
In the New York Zoological Park, we have had troubles of our own with marauding cats. They establish themselves in a day, and quickly learnwheretoseekeasygameandgoodcover. Inthedaytimetheylie close in the thick brush, exactly as tigers do in India, but if not molested for a period of days, they become bold and attack game in open view. One bird-killing cat was so shy of man that it was only after two weeks of hard hunting (mornings and evenings) that it was killed.
We have seen cats catch and kill gray squirrels, chipmunks, robins and thrushes, and have found the feathers of slaughtered quail. Once we had gray rabbits breeding in the park, and their number reached betweeneightyandninety. Foratimetheyfearlesslyhoppedaboutin sight from our windows, and they were of great interest to visitors and to all of us. Then the cats began upon them; and in one year there was not a rabbit to be seen, save at rare intervals. At the same time the chipmunks of the park were almost exterminated.
That was the last straw, and we began a vigorous war upon those wild and predatory cats. The cats came off second best. We killed every cat that was found hunting in the park, and we certainly got some