VoLXXVIIj decent Literature. 105 



matters relating to game preservation and protection, and importation of 

 foreign birds and other animals. The first and third are almost strictly 

 economic in their relations and output, and are of the highest importance 

 to the general welfare. It is therefore fortunate that so many great eco- 

 nomic interests are placed where they can be so well safeguarded and pro- 

 moted. 



The second division of the work of the Bureau requires investigations of 

 a more strictly scientific bearing, and through this provision it has been 

 possible to prepare and publish the long series of monographic and faunistic 

 papers that have so conspicuously contributed to the advancement of 

 North American mammalogy and ornithology. They have, however, 

 been grudgingly and insufficiently provided for by a body of law-makers 

 unable to appreciate the value of scientific research as such, or which has 

 no obvious economic bearing. 



The present report, like its predecessors, is thus largely a report dealing 

 with such economic problems as the destruction of house rats, ground 

 squirrels, field mice, pocket gophers, kangaroo rats, wolves and coyotes, 

 the relation of birds to the boll weevil and other insect pests and to fruit- 

 growing, and the food of shore birds and wild ducks. In respect to the 

 shore birds, it is stated that a bulletin has been prepared "with special 

 reference to their breeding resorts, their winter homes, and their migration 

 routes," which can not fail to be of special interest to ornithologists. In 

 respect to wild ducks, a bulletin is in preparation with reference to legis- 

 lation by which species threatened with extinction "may be preserved 

 either by being bred in a state of partial domestication, or else ponds and 

 streams surrounded by tracts of suitable marshy land may be set apart as 

 duck preserves, where the ducks may resort to breed unmolested." 



Under the head of Geographic Distribution, the progress of field work is 

 noted; reference is made to Mr. Nelson's report on the rabbits of North 

 America, "economically important both as a source of food and because 

 of the great damage they do in various parts of the country"; and to the 

 gathering of data on the migration and distribution of birds and mammals." 

 " Work on the distribution maps has been pushed as rapidly as the exigen- 

 cies of other and more pressing work pennitted." 



As already stated, the protection of game, under various acts of Congress, 

 forms an important branch of the work assigned to the Bureau of Bio- 

 logical Survey, which includes also a constant supervision over the impor- 

 tation of birds and mammals from foreign countries. The importance of 

 this feature of the work can hardly be overestimated, when we recall the 

 English Sparrow pest, the threatened pest of Starlings, already upon us, 

 and the mongoose and rabbit pests that are afflicting other countries, 

 through their injudicious admission in the past. Interesting statistics are 

 given of the importations during the past year of game birds and their eggs 

 and of cage birds of various species. There is also mention of the new bird 

 reservations established during the year, among which is the Hawaiian 

 Islands reservation, which, comprising a number of islets in the Pacific 



