20 BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF 



sions and the records thai the past 8 years of field work and 

 study have produced. It supersedes Pari VI in every way. 



From experience I believe thai a fauna] list should avoid 

 any tendency toward being a catalogue and should confine 

 itself to listing the species found with notes as to their habits, 

 host plants, methods of capture and above all to give the 

 proper identifications. 



It is the responsibility of the author, and it is a real one, 

 to be sure that the insects are rightly determined, and with 

 that in mind every specimen listed has been passed upon by 

 a specialist whenever there has been any doubl as to its 

 identity. Moreover, all records have been rejected except a 

 lew which are known to be authentic and the material may be 

 checked. Practically all of the material has been collected 

 in the past "Jo years and is either in the author's cabinets, 

 in Washington; American Museum of Natural Eistory, or in 

 the collections of well known specialists. All species, with 

 the exception of four from adjacent islands, have been taken 

 on the main Island of Mt. Desert. 



An exception is made in the Mallophaga and three species 

 of bird flies (Hippoboscidae). To acquire actual records of 

 these would necessitate shooting- a large number of birds, the 

 loss of which would not compensate for the little knowledge 

 gained. As over 80^ of the birds are infested by these 

 parasites, a list of the species frequenting the more common 

 birds of the Island can be depended upon to represent the 

 approximate number of species. Through bird banding, con- 

 siderable progress has been made in acquiring the various 

 species of Mallophaga and some of the entries are already 

 represented by collected material. 



The users of Surveys might well be warned that the publica- 

 t ion of one or more species as occurring in a region is obviously 

 no proof that those are the only species in that particular 

 group which do occur. 



Keeping in mind that a recent date is not of as much im- 

 portance as the scientific qualifications of the author, I have 



