10 THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPOTTED FEVER TICK. 
tions in the northern Rocky Mountain region. He explored Wyo- 
ming, Idaho, portions of Utah, and Oregon and Washington. Prof. 
R. A. Cooley, of the Montana Agricultural College, consented to co- 
operate with the bureau by directing the work of Mr. King and by 
submitting specimens from many localities in Montana. During 
1909, Mr. J. D. Mitchell, of the Bureau of Etomology, visited New 
Mexico, and succeeded in determining the southernmost locality in 
which the fever tick is at present known to occur. 
The life-history work upon the tick was conducted at Dallas, 
Tex., by Messrs. H. P. Wood, G. N. Wolcott, and the junior author. 
This began early in 1909 and has continued without interruption. 
In February, 1910, a conference was held in Washington, D. C., 
with Prof. R. A. Cooley and Dr. C. Hart Merriam, then Chief of 
the Biological Survey, for the purpose of formulating definite plans 
for the continuation of the work. It was agreed that the determina- 
tion of the range of the tick should be continued by correspondence 
rather than by sending men into the field and that the local aspects 
of the problem in the Bitter Root Valley should be investigated by 
placing an agent there. The Bureau of Entomology provided the 
necessary funds and established a laboratory near Florence, Mont. 
(See Pl. I, fig. 2.) Prof. Cooley agreed to supervise the work in 
Montana, and was appointed a collaborator in the bureau on March 
1, 1910. At the same time Mr. W. V. King was appointed to work 
under the direction of Prof. Cooley in the Bitter Root Valley. This 
plan of cooperation has centinued down to the present time. 
The results obtained have been due, to a large extent, to the energy 
and acumen of Prof. Cooley and to the high grade of Mr. King’s 
work. But a special word must be said about Mr. King. Unde- 
terred by the possibility of contracting spotted fever, he located on 
an abandoned farm in the most dangerous locality known. In the 
immediate vicinity a number of deaths from spotted fever had oc- 
curred within a short time. He remained there throughout the sea- 
son of 1910, subject to the risk of contracting the fever on his daily 
trips into the field or from the ticks used in the experiments at the 
camp laboratory. His devotion to the investigation outweighed all 
considerations of personal safety. Great credit must also be given 
Mr. C. Birdseye and Mr. A. H. Howell, of the Biological Survey, 
for assuming the risk of residence at the laboratory during a por- 
tion of the season of 1910. Mr. Birdseye continued the investiga- 
tion of the mammals of the valley in 1911. 
In addition to the work in cooperation with the Montana Agri- 
cultural College, in 1910, the bureau undertook to obtain informa- 
tion regarding the exact extent of the area in which the spotted- 
fever tick occurs. By means of a system of circulars and the gen- 
erous cooperation of many physicians and other persons throughout 
