20 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



of economic ornithology. The most important of these have 

 the following titles : " The Food of Birds" (1880) ; " On some 

 Interactions of Organisms" (1880); "Notes on Insectivorous 

 Coleoptera" (1880) ; "The Food Relations of the Carabidae and 

 the CoccinellidEe" (1883); "The Regulative Action of Birds 

 upon Insect Oscillations" (1883). These papers, by one of 

 the most scholarly naturalists America has ever known, were 

 as remarkable for their philosophic breadth of view as they 

 were for the care with which the last detail was followed out. 

 On the whole they still remain the most satisfactory papers 

 upon economic ornithology that have been published. 



In 1882 Professor F. H. King, of Wisconsin, published an 

 elaborate paper on the "Economic Relations of Wisconsin 

 Birds," and in 1886 Dr. B. H. Warren published a report upon 

 the " Birds of Pennsylvania." Each of these contained the 

 results of many studies of bird food and was an important 

 contribution to economic ornithology. 



During the latter half of that decade the subject of eco- 

 nomic ornithology was taken up by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and the story of the development of the 

 subject since that time has been chiefly the story of the 

 operations of the Division of Biological Survey. This work 

 has been so well summarized by Dr. T. S. Palmer, Assistant 

 Chief of the Survey, that we quote from his paper at consid- 

 erable length. 



"One of the most important results of the organization of 

 the American Ornithologists' Union was the impetus given to 

 the study of economic ornithology. Committees on the Eng- 

 lish sparrow, bird migration, and geographical distribution 

 were appointed at the first meeting, and elaborate investiga- 

 tions were at once begun. The work, however, had been 

 planned on such a large scale that it soon outgrew the re- 

 sources of the committees, and at the second annual meeting 

 of the union it was determined to present a memorial to 

 Congress to secure an appropriation for continuing it. The 



