BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY. 679 



pers and the transportation companies receiving such game for ship- 

 ment. However, wlien the first case was tried in the Federal court 

 at Norfolk a ruling of the court regarding the State law and the 

 authority of boards of super\isors to change the section regulating 

 export from the State in their respective counties made it inadvisable 

 to ])r()(eed with the trials, and, upon motion of the United States 

 attorney, they were all dismissed. 



Arkansas. — Conditions are improving in the State generally, and 

 a number of prosecutions in the Federal courts at Helena and Jones- 

 boro, including the imposition of jail sentences against a number of 

 persons residing near Big Lake, charged with interfering with a 

 deputy United States marshal traveling on official duty, has resulted 

 in greatly improved conditions in that part of the State. 



INl-ERSTATE SHIPMENTS BY MAIL. 



Complaints have been filed with this Bureau that protected fur- 

 bearing animals are being shipped in interstate commerce by mail. 

 With the cooperation of the Post Office Department an effort is being 

 made to discourage this practice, and one case has already been 

 reported for prosecution. 



OUTLINE OF WORK FOR 1913. 

 ECONOMIC ORNITHOLOGY AND MAMMALOGY. 



During the year 1913 the Division of Economic Investigations 

 will continue the work of repressing rodents in connection with re- 

 forestation projects in the National Forests of Colorado, Washing- 

 ton, Arizona, Montana. Idaho, and California. Owing to the suc- 

 cess met with in killing prairie dogs in the Cochetopa and Pike 

 Forests of Colorado and the Coconino Forest of xVrizona during 1912, 

 the work will be extended in these Forests and carried to others. 

 Preliminary work in the control of ground squirrels on public lands 

 in California in connection with the suppression of bubonic plague 

 will be carried on. Experiments in rearing fur-bearing animals will 

 l)e undertaken. Examination of the food of wild ducks will be con- 

 tinued, and that of the crow, English sparrow', and swallows will be 

 commenced. A report, in cooperation with the island authorities, 

 will be prepared on the economic habits of Porto Kican birds. In- 

 vestigation of the relation of birds to the cotton boll and alfalfa 

 weevils will be continued. Experiments will be cari'ied on to devise 

 means for controlling pine mice and rabbits in orchards and nur- 

 series. Field work to study methods of control of moles and gophers 

 in the Puget Sound region will be taken up. Demonstrations to 

 determine economic methods of controlling crawfish as crop destroy- 

 ers in the South will be continued. 



GEOGRAPHIC DLSTRIBUTION. 



During the coming year a com])aratively small amount of field 

 woik will be undertaken, owing to lark of funds. Oflice work will 

 be continued in mapping the distribution of birds and mammals 



