Norwich bulletin., 1914-03-28
BIRDS AND CATS.

Dear Cornerites: I am sending a little article on birds and cats. If bird lovers will put a piece of suet or crumbs somewhere up high enongh to escape the dogs and cats, they will be pleased to see the different birds feed ing.
 The snowbirds have been taking reg ular meals off of crumbs I put up on the flat roof of our shed and I think they enjoyed it very much. They say friend to the fruit trees and the farm CTS. Sparrows do not eat fat.
 Don't turn the cat out at night, but shut him up. Early in the morning is when cats do the most damage. We had a cat once that would steal the birds out of their nests in the trees at night. He would often bring them up to the door and leave them- He would not always eat them; sometimes he would disable them just enough so he would play with them the same way he would with 8 mouse.
 Certainly night would not be hide oUs if cat fanciers would shut their cats up at night What IS more dle of the night?
 It is to be regretted that boys with their deadly slingshots. stones and shot guns kill or disable many of our pretty songsters. Each year the birds are getting more scarce and shy A boy in wanton mischief will destroy more birds than 6 cat and rob the nests of eggs also.
 Let those who have cats treat them kindly and humanely dispose of the surplus kittens, and then if the boys are restrained it will do much to keep our dear little birds.
 In most states there are laws gainst the killing of insectivorous birds. Let those laws be enforced. Law is a very good educator, and if the parents of boys had to pay fines once or twice for their boys misconduct there would be very few complaints about bird-killing by boys.
 A farmer will quickly get rid of a chtcken-kilIing cat, and a bird cat should be treated in the same way. IT the owner of a cat was held responsi- ble for bird killing. as the owner of a dog is held responsible for sheep killing, we should have few bird-killing cats.
 About the meanest way to dispose of worthless cats is to bag them and then let them loose several miles from home to poster other people and to learn the habit of killing birds. if it has not already been acquired Ii would be far better to put a good sized stone into the bag with the cat and drop the whole into the mill pond. It would be a. blessing to the cats and more than a DleSSIUS IO l1S pSCple NilO would have been unfortunate enough to live near where the cats were set free.
 A good way to destroy the pestering 2 English sparrow I saw done once while on a visit to Boston. It took place on Boston Common. Wheat, oats and. other grains were soaked in some kind of liquid and distributed over night, and the next day men were there gathering them up in large Quan- titles I never saw at one time such a. large quantity of dead birds. One hardly realizes the enormous rate at which the sparrow increases his num- bers I was told there that one pair of this pest rears in one year from five to six broods. each brood contain ing from four to five young. Our song birds are not only destroyed by this nuisance but their rate of increase Is far smaller. Ought we not give them better protection? English sparrow s should be destroyed in winter, when song birds are south, otherwise more song birds may be destroyed than the sparrows.
 l think the most humane way of get ting rid of worthless eats is to put a piece of an old blanket in d soap box, put the cat inside and close the lid !: have a hole in the lid large enough for . cork: through this hole peur a Ettls