Food and Cover Techniques 



Coexistent with study of the identity, distribution, and migration of 

 animals from the inception of the Biological Survey was research into their 

 food habits. Prom this technique have developed, partly "because of actual 

 relationship, and partly through accidents of administrative history, e. 

 number of other techniques for the improvement of environment and for the 

 encouragement of desirable and the control of .undesirable species, which are 

 today the very warp and woof of the wildlife manager's art. 



Originally developed to throw light on economic \ alues in relation to 

 agriculture, horticulture, and forestry, this work soon responded to the 

 needs of wildlife management, although that term was then unknown. A compre- 

 hensive report on the food habits of the bobwhite was published in the Yearbook 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1903. This was revised in bulletin 

 form and accompanied by accounts of 6 other species of quail in 1905, and in 

 the same year a similar bulletin treating 12 species of grouse and. the wild 

 turkey was issued. Systematic research on the food habits of wild fowl was 

 begun in the laboratory in 1905 and in the field in 1908. The first publica- 

 tion on wild-duck food plants appeared in 1911, and it has been succeeded by a 

 number of papers on that subject. 



The technique of food-habits research involves laboratory analysis of 

 the contents of the alimentary canals of collected specimens, of feces and 

 regurgitated pellets, of food remains at dens, nests, and roosts, as well as 

 all practicable field investigations of feeding habits and of the utilization 

 of food supplies. Such studies yield data, not only on specific food habits 

 but also on the local, seasonal, and general value of food items, that axe of 

 fundamental utility in wildlife management. 



Knowledge of the relative importance of the various constituents of 

 wildlife subsistence naturally led to efforts to increase the more valuable 

 kinds. These efforts developed in one direction into recommendations as to 

 choice of kinds, as to care of propagating material, and as to where, when, 

 and how to set out valuable wild-duck food plants. Later, plants affording 

 refuge shelter and nesting cover were included, and the technique, in effect, 

 became one of general improvement of the environment of wild fowl. These 

 recommendations were acted upon extensively through a long series of years 

 and resulted in grea.t improvement of some properties (up to a tenfold increase 

 by the financial scale), a.nd are now serving as the basis of development and 

 improvement of the vast new system of Federal, migratory bird refuges (over 

 100, totaling more than 1,600,000 acres, within the limits of the 48 States, 

 excluding island refuges). Recommendations as to the value of marsh and 

 aquatic plants and as to methods of propagating them have been of value also 

 to a branch of the fur industry, namely muskrat farming. The demand for these 

 plants, largely created ~i)y publications of the Biological Survey based on food- 

 habits research, is the mainstay of a business of supplying propagating 

 material tha.t at times has a.ttained considerable volume. 



In another direction data provided by the technique of food-habits 

 research made possible the preparation of a long series of publications on 

 methods of attracting birds. These were intended primarily for people desiring 

 to increase the number of birds about their homes - an esthetic consideration, 

 but certainly of social importance, as it contributes to the enjoyment of 

 life of probably half of the families in the United States. The at tract ing- 



- 3 « 



