LETTKR OF TRANSMITTAL. 



I . §L PtlURTMKXT OK AdHKTIJl'IlK, 



Bi j;ku ok Biological Survey, 

 Wqqhingion, I). 6'., January 4 ? 101.'. 

 Sin: I have t lie honor to transmit herewith and to recommend for 

 publication as a farmers' bulletin a report on Some Common Mam- 

 mals of Western Montana in Relation to Agriculture and Spotted 

 Fever, by Clarence Birdsevc. assistant in the Biological Survey. 

 The investigations on which this report is based were carried on in 

 western Montana for several years, especially in the Bitterroot Val- 

 ley, in cooperation with the Bureau, of Entomology and the Montana 

 State Agricultural Experiment Station. As Rocky Mountain spotted 

 fever is transmitted to man by wood ticks and as the earlier stages of 

 these insects are passed almost wholly on native wild mammals, some 

 of which are exceedingly destructive to crops, the facts here pre- 

 sented have an important bearing on human health as well as on 

 agriculture. 



Respectfully, IIknky YV. IIkxshaw, 



Chief, Biological Survey. 



Hon. James Wm.son, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



[A list giving the titles of all Farmers' Bulletins available for distribution 

 will be sent free upon application to a Member of Congress or t lie Secretary of 

 Agriculture.] 

 2 



484 



