()(,(i A CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



this he cannot hope to fill a useful field among his fellow men. If you ever get so very 

 mad you feel you must write an impudent letter, the best way is to sit right down and 

 write it and say all the mean things you can think of. Then take the letter and your hat, 

 having relieved your mind, and take a walk to some secluded spot. Then take out your 

 match box and set fire to the letter and stay by it until it has been decomposed into its 

 chemical constituents. Whatever you do, don't ever mail such a letter — particularly in 

 an oflicial capacity. 



Furthermore, don't mix personal and official matters in the same letter. Always write 

 as freely as you wish about personal things, only not on the same sheet with your official 

 letters which go on file.^ — C. H. M. 



The influence of Merriam on j^ounger naturalists of the time cannot be denied. 

 His greatest student was Vernon Bailey, a heroic figure in American mammalogy. 

 Many "unknowns," later to become celebrated for their own researches, collected 

 for him. E. W. Nelson, E. A. Goldman, and W. H. Osgood may be numbered 

 among his illustrious "students." Dr. Nelson later served as chief of the Biological 

 Survey (1916-1927), Goldman is noted for his Mexican surveys, and Wilfred H. 

 Osgood was director of zoology at the Chicago Natural History Museum at the 

 time of his death. For a detailed account of Merriam,^ the reader should see the 

 stimulating account by Osgood (1943). Nearly 500 publications, many of mono- 

 graphic scope, are listed by Grinnell (1943). 



The United States Biological Survey 



No other organization has played such an outstanding role in American wild- 

 life as has the U. S. Biological Survey. Its function is the investigation of life 

 histories, habitats, ranges, distribution, and the economic, recreational, cultural, 

 and other values of American birds and mammals. Over the years, a major em- 

 phasis has been placed on the repression of noxious rodents and predatory mam- 

 mals where such was needed. The vast number of scientific publications detailing 

 the researches conducted by this agency is without parallel. 



When the first appropriation for a Branch of Economic Ornithology in the 

 Division of Entomology was made in 1885, Americans were at long last becoming 

 conscious of the increasing plight of our wildlife resources. They had seen the 

 fate of the buffalo determined with completion of the Union Pacific. Ribbons 

 of steel had separated the great beasts into a northern and southern herd, and the 

 railroad provided the needed transport for the spoils of the hide hunters. Unwise 

 introductions of exotics and the scandalous slaughter of wildlife had the effect of 

 focusing attention on the plight of this great natural heritage. In its second 

 year, the division took cognizance of mammals, primarily in their relation to 

 agriculture and horticulture. It appears that Dr. Merriam had little use for the 

 term "economic," and his leadership led to a steady subordination of the practical 

 problems to those of the scientific. It was not long before his interests prevailed. 

 Studies in geographic distribution, which Merriam considered equally or more 

 important than the economic, took precedence over the practical. Economic and 

 agricultural publications were to be published in the form of special reports or 

 circulars (the familiar Farmers' Bulletin), while the scientific was to be brought 

 out in the North American Fauna series. From 1891 until 1906, geographic dis- 

 tribution was the keynote of research, with economic relations playing a lesser 

 role. This trend was reflected in the Secretary of Agriculture's report for 1890, 

 in which he declared •, 



