BUREAU OF THE BIOLOGICAL SURVEY 95 



investigator telling in narrative form of the progress of the 

 work entrusted to him. 



Division of Food Habits: The Division of Food Habits 

 Research is a straddle between biological investigation and 

 control of certain species of birds found undesirable. The 

 biological investigation side includes stomach analysis work 

 at the special laboratory for that purpose in Denver, 30 the 

 survey of proposed sites of refuges for migratory birds, 

 and the study of the food habits of certain birds and mam- 

 mals in relation to forestry under the McSweeney-McNary 

 Act. 31 Although this work is not a duplication of that car- 

 ried on by the Division of Biological Investigations, it is in 

 a sense a continuance of the activities of that Division. 



Control work follows when the study of the food habits 

 of birds show them to be destructive to agriculture. During 

 1932, for example, such studies were made in California of 

 the damage to rice by blackbirds and to fruits and vege- 

 tables by linnets and larks. Control methods were experi- 

 mented with and those finally applied were successful in 

 materially reducing the damage. The question naturally 

 arises whether this control work in regard to harmful species 

 of birds is not much the same as that carried on by the 

 Division of Game Management. The answer seems to be 

 that it is, although it is possible that more efficient results 

 are obtained by placing birds apart under this Division than 

 by combining them with predatory animals and rodents. 



Division of Fur Resources: The Division of Fur Re- 

 sources like the two already discussed is engaged in bio- 



30 The stomach examination of numerous birds and mammals proved 

 false many common tales regarding their food habits. For example, 

 stomach analysis of foxes taken in Virginia did not bear out the hunters' 

 contention that they destroy many quail but indicated instead a diet chiefly 

 of rabbit. Report of the Chief, Biological Survey (1932), p. 7. 



*i 45 Stat. L. 699. 



