DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 307 



with the national park movement, not impossibly and 

 undesirably to restore any part of the lost past, but 

 to retain enough examples of the original to inform 

 posterity and reproduce for its enlightenment and 

 enjoyment the spirit of the great past. 



The next effective forward step came through 

 government. 



Unique among the bureaus of the national 

 government, the Biological Survey, created for a 

 purpose far different from its eventual destiny, has 

 come to function principally as national guardian of 

 important game animals and administrator of the 

 migratory bird treaty with Canada. Originated 

 solely for scientific investigation, it grew out of 

 studies in bird migration undertaken by the Ameri- 

 can Ornithological Union upon the organization of 

 that body in 1883. It conducted minute investiga- 

 tions of American species in every part of the coun- 

 try, investigated bird and insect habits in relation 

 to agriculture and issued many popular reports, 

 saved many species under the ban of ignorance, and 

 investigated and established the theory of life zones 

 all before its main endeavor became the study and 

 administration of game birds and animals. 



The story of its beginning is interesting. Upon 

 inaugurating its studies in bird migration, the Amer- 

 ican Ornithological Union placed its special com- 

 mittee under the chairmanship of Dr. S. Hart Mer- 

 riam of New York, who had been naturalist of the 

 Hayden Survey at the age of seventeen, and later, as 



