564 ANNUAL EEPOKTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



OUTLINE OF WORK FOR 1911. 

 ECX)NOMIC ORNITHOLOGY AND MAMMALOGY. 



Work on the food habits of birds and mammals will be continued, 

 including the examination of stomachs, tabulation of their contents, 

 and field observations. 



Field experiments will be continued to determine the most effective 

 and economical methods of destroying the California ground squirrel, 

 which is so injurious to crops and which is known to be a carrier of 

 the bubonic plague. 



Field experiments will be carried on in Washington and Oregon 

 to determine methods of reducing the numbers of the several species 

 of ground squirrels which are so injurious to grain and farm produce. 



Experiments in destroying pocket gophers in orchards and farming 

 land with poisons and improved traps will be continued. 

 ' ' Field observations and laboratory experiments will be carried on to 

 devise improved methods for controlling injuries done by field mice, 

 pine mice, and the common mice and rats. The economic relation of 

 the common mole to agriculture will be further studied and a report 

 prepared for publication. 



Cooperation with the Forest Service will be continued to devise 

 methods of protecting tree seeds and saplings from the attacks of 

 birds and mammals in attempts to reforest treeless areas within the 

 national forests. 



Cooperation with the Reclamation Service in protecting dikes and 

 fills from burrowing mammals will be carried on as in previous 

 years. 



- The collecting of data relative to deer and elk farming will be con- 

 tinued, and the examination of skunk, mink, and fox farms will be 

 undertaken. 



Field work in connection with the relation of woodpeckers to forest 

 insects, and of fruit-eating birds to small cultivated fruits will be 

 continued, as also the investigation in relation to birds and the cotton 

 boll weevil. 



The investigation into the food of wild ducks and geese will be 

 completed during the year and a report will be prepared for publi- 

 cation. 



Preliminary field work will be taken up concerning the food of shore 

 birds, some of which feed extensively on the young of mosquitoes. 



Work on the food of the flycatchers, an important group of birds, 

 which destroy immense numbers of injurious insects, will be com- 

 pleted. 



GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION. 



The biological survey of AVyoming will be carried on and it is 

 believed that most of the State can be covered during the corning 

 year. Field work in Montana, Utah, California, and the Mississippi 

 Valley States will be continued. A large-scale zone map of the 

 United States will be published to accompany a report on life and 

 crop zones. Reports on the biological survey of Colorado and New 

 Mexico will be published. A report on the birds of Arkansas will 

 probably be made ready for publication during the year. 



