Connecticut western news., 1909-09-16
ECONOMIC VALUE OF CAT AND SKUNK
CONTRIBUTION BY A. K. FISHER
In Charge of Economic investigations, Biological Survey, in Department of ArgricuIture Year Book-Facts all Should Know.

ArgricuIture Year Book-Facts all
 Should Know.
 Valuable as many predaceous animals are in aiding to maintain the balance of Nature, man looks askance at every mammal or bird that molests his poultry or the game of the State, and without regard to consequences sets out to kill everything that resembles the particular offender He declines to give mere pittance in return for value received, and visits indiscrlminate persecution on the humble and faitbful workers that have helped to save his harvest or or chard.
 Most flesh eating animals change their ordinary diet only under pressure of hunger. In the main they prey upon some abundant species, which when available, furnishes almost their entire subsistence. For example, if meadow mice were always present, the redtalled hawk would rarely touch other food. It is when normal food is scarce that pred atory birds and mammals are from ne- cessity forced to take what they can find and thus become trespassers. It is true that there are perverted individuals among animals, just as there are objec- tionable characters among men, and these by their overt acts tend to discredlt their class as 8 whole, Yet the man. eating tiger and the poultry eating skunk, weasel and hawk are rare, the yh their deeds have been heralded far and wide and their names have be- come notorious.
 In many cases-it might be safe to say i'll almost all-depredations by nor mally useful species are the work of ex- ceptional individuals which for some reason depart from the habits of their kind. Thus among the beneficial hawks nnd owls it has been found that tho trangressors usually are immature birds, which, 1t is fair to assume, lack skill and experience in hunting their normal prey and consequently are forced to feed upon anything that offers.
 A given species in 8 certain locality, and under what may be termed normal conditions of food supply, may be most valuable factor in controlling pest, while in another part of it's range it may be undesirable on account of its inroads on poultry or stock. The great horned owl and coyote are examples in point. In authenticated regions and in Ylne- yards, orchards, meadows, or gardens overrun by field mice they are among the best friends of man; but ill thickly settled regions comparatively free from rabbits and mice, both the owl and coy ots have to be summarily dealt with, as also does the coyote in sections where sheep raising is an important industry.
 Nature carefully safeguards the per manency and welfare of species by making the healthy aud virile indiyid- uals wary, agile, and elusive, so that their natural enemies are forced in the main to content themselves with the less favored individuals. The wolf that pulls down the sick or enfeebled deer, or the hawk that devours the crippled quail, has really benefited the species it preys upon, though at the expense of the individual, since by the removal of the weak and unfit, more vigorous breeding stock is secured, and the danger of out breaks of disease materially lessened,
 It may be of interest to consider briefly the relations of some of the better known predaceous species.
 THE HOUSE CAT
 Many an innocent hawk, skunk, owl. and weasel has been shot for the deeds of that sleek highwayman, the house cat. It is safe to say that this marauder, which enjoys all the comforts and pro- lection of home, destroysin the aggre- gate more wild birds and young poultry than all the native natural enemies combined. A cat has been known to kill a whole brood of chickens in a day, a feat unequaled by any predaceous animal, with the possible exception of the mink. Others in the course of season have practically destroyed whole coveys of quail or grouse, or nests full of young songsters. A well-known nat uralist estimates that in the New Eng land States alone 100000 birds are des- troyed annually by cats.
 The offender is not so often the we'll fed household pet as it is the abandoned and neglected outoast. In 1905 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York City killed monthly an average of 5000 siok. in- jured, or homeless cat-a total for the wear of over 7O,OOo. A considerable pro- portion of these were pets aban doned by people who had gone to the