Connecticut western news., 1909-09-16

summer visitors to the mountains or seashore sometimes take with them their cats, which, on their return home, are too often left behind to swell the local overflow and make serious inrOads on the birds of the region. It is safe to assume that in the rest of the State out side of New York City as many cats follow a nomadic life as in the city, and if we assume that each cat kills bird week. we have grand total of over B. 5O0,0OO birds destroyed annually. In the milder parts of our country, as in the chaparral region of California, where bird life is abundant, cats often revert to a semi-wild state and never revisit their old homes except for plunder. Sportsmen and bird lovers should be ever watchful and whenever possible re- move marauding cats from the coyerts.
 The principal reasons gIyen for keep ing cats are thelr attractiveness as house pets, their usefulness as companions for children, and their alleged value as rat and mouse killers. It is impossible at present to obtain correct figures on the subject, but it is safe to say that few persons during a normal lifetime run across more than half dozen cats that habitually attack rats. Occasionally hunter cat is found which seems to de- light in catching rats, gophers, or ground squirrels. It has been the common ex- perience of the writer to find premises that were we'll supplied with cats over run with rats and mice. At certain ranch house in the West he trapped in his bedroom 12 mice in a week, although eight cats had access to the place.
 Lovers of the cat should be content with one, or at the most two, of these pets, and should see to it that oatoasbs do not run at large on their premises. Now that cats are known to carry in their fur the germs not only of ring worm, but also of such dreaded diseases as tuberculosis, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and smallpox, the presence in the house. hold of Tabby is not without it's dan gers.
 'a THE SKUNK
 The skunk is another "chicken thief" which renders important service by des- troying immense numbers of mice, white grubs, grasshoppers, criokets, cutworms, hornets, wasps, and other noxious forms. Although it prefers this kind of food, like the opossum it will eat al- most any animal matter and also at times certain wild fruits and berries. Is is said to be fond also of eggs and young chickens; but the writer has known a mother skunk to make her nest and rear her young in the inner walls of chicken yard and neither egg nor fowl was molested.
 The following we'll illustrates the close relations that diverse forms of ami mai life bear to one another and demon strates how easily the natural balance may be upset: An extensive marsh bor. dering a lake in northern New York formed suitable home for numerous ducks, rails, snapping turtles, frogs, and other aquatic life. The turtles deposited their eggs in attention of the skunks of the neighborhood, and their nightly feasts so reduced the total output of eggs that only 8 small percentage of the young survived to reach the protective shelter of the marsh. As time went on conditions cbapuad SL10Ix f,,r boco0, a fashionable and commanded a good price. The country boy, ever on the alert for an opportunity to add to his pocket money. sallied forth and captured so that within a comparatively short time the skunk almost wholly disap- pearsd. When this check on their in crease was removed, the snapping tar ties matched in great numbers and scrambled off in all directions into the marsh. When their numbers had been properly controlled by the destruction of large proportion of their eggs, their food supply was adequate, but when they had increased many-fold the SUD- ply proved insufficient. Finally, through force of circumstances, the turtles added ducklings to their fare until the few ducks that refused to leave the marsh paid the penalty of their persistency by rarely bringing to maturity more than one or two young. It Is not surprising that this great aggregation of turtles, containing the essential of delicious soup, should have attracted the atten- tion of the agents of tho market men and restaurant keepers. The final chapter, the readjustment of conditions, may be briefly told: The marsh became scene of great activity, where men and boys caught the voracious chelonians, and bags, boxes, and barrels of them were shipped away. There was also in the value of skunk skins, with corresponding loss of interest on the part of the trapper, so the progeny of the surviving gkunks cOngreqated at the |