Page:What to do for Uncle Sam; a first book of citizenship (IA whattodoforuncle00bail).pdf/64

60 Mountains, and the Pacific States, you would be very much surprised at something which has happened. Yow might see a few wild birds, perhaps a deer or two, maybe a chipmunk. There would be few rabbits and squirrels, and almost no fawns. It is surprising how soon a wild species becomes extinct, and we are likely to need wild food, and all the birds that live on insects.

Some of our states are going to try and regulate hunting and establish safe preserves in the forest land where the deer may rest for a few years. Children may help by putting away their rabbit snares and by sparing the squirrels. The cat needs more attention just now, too, for she has little mercy on the farmer’s helpers, the birds. A house cat, well fed, and properly sheltered, will soon become too lazy to hunt. The neglected cats, starved, and without shelter, that haunt the country and the city, too, go back to their tiger habits and do great harm to wild life.

The claws of a cat are savage weapons. Sometimes a robin which a cat has only struck down with her claws is poisoned, and dies in a most cruel way. A pigeon cut by a cat’s claw very seldom lives. A pet squirrel that a cat scratched seemed unhurt at first, but it refused to eat, and finally died. Some cats have been known to climb orchard trees and rob nests of valuable birds that