914 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 678 



THE BIOLOGICAL SURVEY^ 



The Biological Survey is quietly working 

 for the good of our agricultural interests and 

 is an excellent example of a government bu- 

 reau whicli conducts original scientific re- 

 search, the findings of which are of much 

 practical utility. For more than twenty 

 years it has studied the food habits of birds 

 and mammals that are injurious or beneficial 

 to agriculture, horticulture and forestry; has 

 distributed illustrated bulletins on the subject 

 and has labored to secure legislative protec- 

 tion for the beneficial species. The cotton- 

 boll weevil, which has recently overspread the 

 cotton belt of Texas and is steadily extending 

 its range, is said to cause an annual loss of 

 about $3,000,000. The Biological Survey has 

 ascertained and given wide publicity to the 

 fact that at least forty-three kinds of birds 

 prey upon this destructive insect. It has dis- 

 covered that fifty-seven species of birds feed 

 upon scale insects — dreaded enemies of the 

 fruit-grower. It has shown that wood- 

 peckers as a class, by destroying the larvae of 

 wood-boring insects, are so essential to tree 

 life that it is doubtful if our forests could • 

 exist without them. It has shown that 

 cuckoos and orioles are the natural enemies 

 of the leaf -eating caterpillars that destroy our 

 shade and fruit trees; that our quails and 

 sparrows consume annually hundreds of tons 

 of seeds of noxious weeds; that hawks and 

 owls as a class (excepting the few that kill 

 poultry and game birds) are markedly bene- 

 ficial, spending their lives in catching grass- 

 hoppers, mice and other pests that prey upon 

 the products of husbandry. It has conducted 

 field experiments for the purpose of devising 

 and perfecting simple methods of holding in 

 check the hordes of destructive rodents — 

 rats, mice, rabbits, gophers, prairie-dogs 

 and ground-squirrels — which annually destroy 

 crops worth many millions of dollars; and it 

 has published practical directions for the de- 

 struction of wolves and coyotes on the stock 

 ranges of the west, resiilting during the last 

 year in an estimated saving of cattle and 

 sheep valued at upward of a million dollars. 



^ President Roosevelt in his annual report to 

 the congress. 



It has inaugurated a system of inspection 

 at the principal ports of entry on both At- 

 lantic and Pacific coasts by means of which 

 the introduction of noxious mammals and 

 birds is prevented, thus keeping out the mon- 

 goose and certain birds which are as much to 

 be dreaded as the previously introduced Eng- 

 lish sparrow and the house rats and mice. 



In the interest of game protection it has 

 cooperated with local oflicials in every state 

 in the union, has striven to promote uniform 

 legislation in the several states, has rendered 

 important service in enforcing the federal law 

 regulating interstate traffic in game and has 

 shown how game protection may be made to 

 yield a large revenue to the state — a revenue 

 amounting in the case of Illinois to $128,000 

 in a single year. 



The Biological Survey has explored the 

 faunas and floras of America with reference 

 to the distribution of animals and plants; it 

 has defined and mapped the natural life areas 

 — areas in which, by reason of prevailing 

 climatic conditions, certain kinds of animals 

 and plants occur — and has pointed out the 

 adaptability of these areas to the cultivation 

 of particular crops. The results of these in- 

 vestigations are not only of high educational 

 value, but ai-e worth each year to the progres- 

 sive farmers of the country many times the 

 cost of maintaining the survey, which, it may 

 be added, is exceedingly small. I recommend 

 to congress that this bureau, whose usefulness 

 is seriously handicapped by lack of funds, be 

 granted an appropriation in some degree com- 

 mensurate with the importance of the work it 

 is doing. 



FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY '^ 

 The Field Museum is open to the public 

 from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.; visitors within 

 the, museum may remain until half -past four. 

 The badge of the association admits members 

 to the museum during the meeting. The 

 museum is situated in Jackson Park at the 

 continuation of 57th Street; is five minutes' 



^ Information for visitors attending the con- 

 vocation week meeting. 



