Death of a magpie

This morning I was interrupted from my usual diet of watching interesting programmes from the tele I recorded last night (on this occasion I was watching a slightly dry Horizon on the subject of gravitational waves still reverberating in the universe even though they formed in its first second) when I heard a commotion in the garden. I went out to look and there was my ginger tom Rufus holding a fully grown magpie in its maw. I did my usual thing of trying to startle him, hoping he might drop the bird, allowing it to escape. This sometimes works but I could see the bird was hanging limply and was in all probability already dead. But its fellows, a tiding of anything up to eight other magpies launched into a furious fusillade of protest: cah-cah-cah-cah- cah! Acting in concert they flew around and around our cat, perching on tree branches perilously close to him and screaming out their disapproval. I don't think I have ever heard such a small collection of birds make such an infernal din.


Twenty minutes later they were still at it, vowing their revenge on my cat and grieving the loss of their fellow creature. But in all their mobbing they were careful not to get too close to him. They had already witnessed what happens when a bird does that...


I have shared my house with cats for as long as I can remember, and I do harbour deep misgivings about the toll they take on birds and other animals. A cat may kill as many as 500 birds in its lifetime, driven, not by hunger but a deep, primeval instinct to hunt. And unfortunately for other wildlife they are superbly adapted predators with acute senses with a range of vicious weaponry at their disposal. We know that cats are partly responsible for the decline of birds in Britain, and I don't feel good about that. But they rarely take down magpies. Magpies are one of the species which hasn't declined in the last 50 years, partly because of their vigour, high intelligence (some say they are as smart as dolphins) and supremely adaptable nature. But just because they are common and widely distributed doesn't make me feel any better about seeing one of their number taken down.


Why have a cat at all? For me the answer is, if I may use thecurrent expression: my cats are emotional support animals, central to maintaining my emotional equilibrium. So I won't be getting rid of them any time soon. But I will continue to do my best to retrieve animals from their clutches when I can. I owe the animal kingdom that much at least.