“We can help birds simply by not hurting them and leaving them as free
as possible to live out their joyous lives; but we can do much more if
we will leave some little bushy nooks about the farm or garden, where
they may nest in private, place food in convenient places during the
long, cold winter months for those birds that remain with us, and _make
it a rule never to raise more kittens than we need_ to keep barn and
house free of rats or than we can feed and care for.
“Silly people, who shirk responsibility, often say, ‘Oh, I couldn’t
think of drowning a kitten,’ and yet they will let dozens of them grow
up unfed and uncared for, or leave a litter by the roadside, until in
many places a breed of gaunt, half-wild cats roam about destroying the
eggs and young of song-birds, game-birds, and domestic fowls alike.
“A nice, comfortable house or barn cat is one thing, but the savage
outcast is quite another, and should no more be let live than a weasel
or a skunk.