MENACE TO BIRD LIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21962, 20 November 1934, Page 11

MENACE TO BIRD LIFE

WILD CATS IN THE NORTH LARGE, FIERCE ANIMALS PUP WORSTED IN FIGHT A report has been submitted by Mr. J']. T. Frost, a representative of the Native Bird and Forest Protection Society in North Auckland, on the havoc wrought by cats among native birds in that district. Speaking of the desertion of worked«mt gum areas and the departure of trie diggers, Mr. Frost says that almost every digger had a cat, and in many cases these were left behind, and have bred and multiplied, so that they now constitute a great menace to bird life. Travelling along almost any track in the scrub, especially just about dusk, one may see the stealthy form of the marauding cat. Many of them are large, fierce animals, and it is a bold dog that will tackle one.

"Recently, while riding over some sandhills, where dotterel nest," says Mr. Frost, "1 flushed a wild cat, and a young dog 1 had bailed it up in a flax bush. 1 got up just in time to see the cat lying on its back, its four feet and claws* extended, waiting for the attack. The pup rushed in, and got it, and in a trice was retreating as fast as its legs would carry it, while the spitting, scratching cat had made good its retreat. "Thousands of young birds must fall a prey every year, and one wonders what the result will be . . The

country is as yet so sparsely settled in many parts that it will be many years before the wild cat will be reduced in numbers, and meanwhile our larks, dotterel, aud fern-birds, as well as tree-nesting birds, will suffer."