8 2 PROBLEMS IN WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



tion, three committees were appointed to study bird life. 

 One committee undertook to study the distribution of the 

 various species of North American birds ; another, the Eng- 

 lish sparrow; and a third, bird migrations. This last com- 

 mittee in the course of its work requested the cooperation 

 of ornithologists and observers the country over, asking 

 that they report via questionnaires upon the bird life ob- 

 served by them. 



The response to this appeal was so overwhelming that at 

 the second congress of the Union held the following year, 

 the chairman of the committee, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, re- 

 ported financial aid must be secured if the work was to 

 continue. The council of the Union turned to the national 

 government, urging that the dissemination of the knowledge 

 obtained from ornithology would be a valuable addition to 

 the agricultural program of the nation. Without great 

 difficulty, the council, largely through the aid of Senator 

 Warren Miller of New York 2 and Spencer Baird of the 

 Smithsonian, 3 was able to secure an appropriation of $5,000 

 available July i, 1885.* 



The new work was placed under the direction of the 

 Division of Entomology in the Department of Agriculture 

 although the ornithologists would like to have seen it set up 

 as a separate division. The council of the Union at the re- 

 quest of the Commissioner of Agriculture, recommended 

 Dr. Merriam for the post of director, and he was accord- 

 ingly appointed. Thus the organization which in time was 

 to become the Bureau of the Biological Survey got under 

 way. 



2 See speech in support of, by Senator Warren Miller, Congressional 

 Record, Feb. 20, 1885, p. 1937. 



3 See Merriam, C. Hart, " Baird the Naturalist," Scientific Monthly, 

 June 1924, vol. v, no. 28, p. 588. 



* Act of March 3, 1885, 23 Stat. L. 353, 354. 



