Ges) 
on of four Federal agencies--the Forest Service, Soil Conser- 
a major functi 
ce, the Tennessse Valley Authority, and the Bureau of Biological 
vation Servi 
Survey. 
Of all these, the Biological Survey is most extensively occupicd with 
wildlife management, and in retrospect it scems that throughout its history 
of more than half a century tho Survoy has been developing techniques that 
now prove to be essential in wildlife technology, This devolopment was, in 
its carlior stages, ontirely without roference to wildlife managemont, a 
practice then scarcely imagined, In later years the tie between scientific 
method and practical application has been much closer and the varied tecn- 
niques fit into the technology like parts of a well-built machine. 
Idontity, 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 continucd, The Survey has sent ex- 
ploring cxpeditions to almost every part of tho Republic and of other parts 
of North America, including Canada, Mexico, Panama, and our Territorial 
possessions, It has accumulated ropresontative 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 North America, 
ihe clascsifacacton on anamals) jis) base ro) als nuit mer ISibe cuyge tS 
most practical result is a dependable system of names, which enables workers 
to learn what has been recorded about any varticular species and to compare 
notes effectively with other investigators. The wildlife technician must 
accurately Imow 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 investigators, 
everywhere, have accumulated - truly an inostimablo advantage. 
Throughout its history the Biclogical Survey has been aiding workers 
by making these critical identifications; it has further collected informa- 
tion 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 gcn- 
eralizations than has ever beon available clsewhere, The technique of bird- 
banding 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 nas 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 wildlifc managoment problems 
involving more than a singic State, hence play a leading part in those highly 
important activitics that only the Federal Government can conduct. Among 
these are the promulgation of regulations protecting birds migrating between 
the United States and Canada and Mexico, 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 taroughout the major 
flyways of the United States, 

