BUREAU OF THE BIOLOGICAL SURVEY 87 



ous acts setting aside specific areas as refuges, added fur- 

 ther regulatory duties to the Survey's activities. 



One phase of the Survey's present-day activity remains 

 to be considered historically and that is the work in the 

 preserving and the breeding of desirable species of wild life. 

 The reclamation movement which swept the country at the 

 opening of the century was indirectly responsible. A large 

 number of the lakes and marshes where migratory birds 

 nested were reclaimed during that period. Then there came 

 a series of dry years in the West which dried up other areas 

 used by wild fowl. The result was the overcrowding of the 

 remaining areas which, in turn, bred disease that had a truly 

 disastrous effect in reducing the numbers of game birds. 

 Ironically, it was later discovered that much of the land 

 reclaimed was of little value for either farming or grazing. 



The Survey Establishes Game Refuges: Due largely to 

 the efforts of the American Game Protective Association, a 

 bill was introduced in Congress in 1921 that authorized the 

 Survey to purchase and administer certain remaining areas 

 of marsh lands that were used as breeding areas. The bill 

 failed of passage but a similar proposal was included in the 

 Migratory Bird Conservation Act, 18 already referred to, 

 which gave somewhat more extensive powers to the Survey 

 than did the 1921 bill. 



It set up an ex-ofricio commission known as the Migra- 

 tory Bird Commission 19 to approve the areas before pur- 

 chase but the Secretary of Agriculture through the Survey 

 was to do the actual work involved in the purchase and 

 was to administer the land afterwards. Nor was the work 

 limited to the acquisition of marsh lands but went a step fur- 



18 Act of Feb. 18, 1929, 45 Stat. L. 1222. 



19 Consisting of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, 

 two members of the House, and two members of the Senate. 



