REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 12 X 



BIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



Biological investigations have been carried on during the year in 

 Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, Tennessee, Wyo- 

 ming, and Virginia, and the information gathered has added much to 

 our knowledge of the distribution, abundance, habits, and economic 

 relations of mammals and birds. It has also yielded data for numer^ 

 ous corrections of life and crop zone maps and enabled answers to 

 be given to numerous inquiries as to the crops best suited to specie 

 fied areas. 



A revised and corrected edition of the zone map of North America 

 has been published during the year, and for the first time the out- 

 lines of the Tropical and Hudsonian Zones have been shown with 

 some detail. While mainly extralimital, both these zones are rep- 

 resented in the United States; the Tropical in Florida, the Hud- 

 sonian on the higher mountains and in Alaska. 



A report on the biological survey of Colorado has been issued and 

 distributed. It covers the subject of life and crop zones of the State 

 and includes a detailed zone map and a fully annotated list of the 

 mammals 



GAME PRESERVATION AND INTRODUCTION. 



While the need of game protection is each year better understood, 

 and while effective legislation for the p^seryation of game becomes 

 yearly more general among the States, it is apparent that the ex- 

 tinction of the wilderness by growing settlement must, sooner or 

 later, deprive the United States of most of its big game, except as 

 it may be preserved on lands set apart for that purpose. Hence, in 

 addition to unremitting efforts to prevent rapid destruction of game 

 by market hunting or excessive killing for sport, growing attention 

 is demanded by the question of game preserves, both private and 

 public. The Biological Survey has devoted much consideration to 

 this phase of game preservation, and much work has been done in 

 connection with game preserves and bird reservations. 



ELK IN WYOMING. 



At the close of the session the Sixty-first Congress made an ap- 

 propriation of $20,000 for the feeding, protecting, and removing of 

 elk in the region known as Jacksons Hole and vicinity, Wyoming. 

 As soon as the appropriation became available two representatives 

 of the Biological Survey were sent to Wyoming to do whatever was 

 possible for the slai-ving elk. As nil tlie available hay had been 

 secured by the State and was being fed to the elk, attention was 

 turned to other phases of the problem, such as the conditions re- 

 sponsible for lack of food, the number of elk that died from starva- 



