Of all those, the Biological Survey is most, extensively occupied 

 with wildlife management, and in retrospect it seems that throughout its 

 history of more than half a century the Survey has "been developing techniques 

 that now prove to be essential in wildlife technology. This development was, 

 in its earlier stages, entirely without reference to wildlife management, a 

 practice then scarcely imagined. In later years the tie "between scientific 

 method and practical application has heen much closer and the' varied 

 techniques fit into the technology like parts of a well-built machine. 



Identity, Range, and Migration Techniques 



Among these techniques, those of classifying animals, working out 

 their ranges, and tracing their movements were prominent in early activities 

 of the Biological Survey and are still continued. The Survey has sent 

 exploring expeditions to almost every part of the Republic and of other parts 

 of North America, including Canada, Mexico, Panama,, and our Territorial 

 possessions. It has accumulated representative and extensive collections 

 essential- to sound classification, and it has. trained competent taxonomists. 

 Although not confined to the Survey, work along these lines has "been carried 

 on more intensively there than, elsewhere, and the Bureau is recognized as the 

 principal focus of such information relative to the fauna of Horth America. 



The classification of animals is basic to all further study. Its most 

 practical result is a dependable system of names, which enables workers to 

 learn what has been recorded about any particular species and to compa.ro notes 

 effectively with other investigators. The wildlife technician must accurately 

 know what forms he is dealing with; identification is the key to all that is 

 known of relationships, distribution, and habits, and it enables him to shape 

 his practice in the light of knowledge that all invest iga.tors, everywhere, 

 have accumulated - truly ah inestimable advantage. 



Throughout its history the Biological Survey has been adding workers 

 ^oy making these critical identifications; it has further collected information 

 on the geographic distribution of animals and intensively studied bird 

 migration. In the course of the migration work, millions of records from all 

 sources have been assembled, providing a more satisfactory basis for 

 generalizations than has ever been available elsewhere. The technique of 

 birdbanding has been adopted, improved, and extended. Its peculiar importance 

 arises from the tracing of the movements of individual birds, thus making 

 possible, in the long run, more accurate definition than has ever. before been 

 possible, of migration routes, general bird flyways, and winter and summer 

 ranges of species. The scientific data bearing on the ranges and movements 

 of birds are indispensable to proper conduct of wildlife management problems 

 involving more than a single State, hence play a leading part in those highly 

 important activities that only the Federal Government .can -conduct. Among 

 these are the promulgation of regulations protecting birds migrating between 

 the United States and Canada, an annual task since 1918, and the establishment 

 of a system of migratory bird refuges giving adequate protection to wild fowl 

 on the breeding and wintering grounds and throughout the major flyways of the 

 United States. 



