BIRDS DEFEAT CAT

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 20

BIRDS DEFEAT CAT

■ A case is reported from Havvera in which the birds "got their own back" from the cats. "This is an old garden," writes a reader, "with trees all round and part in orchard, bordering a lawn backed by a high hedge. For a long time the cats (there are four) have been in the haijit of bringing •in a bird or two nearly every day. The fruit has attracted starlings, minahs, sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes, ;with an occasional bellbird, and the ;toll on fruit has been partly overcome by the war on birds by the cats. "One old mother cat is a great birdcatcher; but the birds had a triumph yesterday which was watched with 'much interest and amusement. The '•cat had climbed one of the trees where ■apparently two of the birds were nesting. Just then bedlam broke loose. A treaty of defence seemed to have been signed by the birds, for with a •whirring of wings and a confused chatter, they flew round the cat, with such effect that.she stopped her search for the nest and looked to protect heriself. The birds gave her no rest and she turned to make her way down to 'solid ground. Just then two black."birds swooped down and buried their strong beaks in the skin on her back, and with a rush and scurry the cat ;went for her life, reached the ground in one spring, and did not stop until she had found a place of safety. ; "It was a flank victory for the birds, who completely routed their enemy. -They seemed to have lured her into difficult country just as the Abyssinians are doing to the Italians and then attacked her in the rear." ; G. F. PAGE. ■ Hawera.