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SPORT.
If puss could speak, I think she would
say, "Yes, dear, it is all the same to me.
I like to eat birds. Nice young ones please
me well. If I could get young birds to eat,
I
I would leave the owl to catch mice.
like birds best. Men catch birds. They
shoot them-kill them-cook them, and eat
them-and that they call sport; why may
not we cats have sport too ? We do not
want to sell the birds we catch-we do not
care to cook them-we do not know how to
shoot them;-but we like to eat them. I
think that a cat has a right to catch birds."
Cats are beasts of prey, just the same as
bears and wolves are. In their wild state
their chief food is the flesh of birds. Tame
cats catch mice, but they would catch birds
if they could. That is why cats climb trees.
We do not like to see cats catch birds,
though we like them to catch mice. But
how are cats to know that ? Birds are of
use to us, and we are glad to hear them
sing; but cats like their flesh!