Evening star., 1925-03-20
~ WILLIAM C. DEMING.
President United States Civil Service
Commission.


Tn recent article about the work
Of the Bureau of Biological Survey
DIR. Edward ". Nelson, its chief.
characterised the bureau as the court
of last resort for the investigation OF
questions regarding the relation of
wild animals and birds to agriculture,
horticulture. forestry and stock rails
ing. ! think you will agree that you
are interested in all of these, even if
you yourself do not raise any crops
or live stock.
Conservation of our game birds is
an important part of the bureaus
work. In fact. the activities of the
bureau are directed chiefly toward
conservation or protection; even its
work in the destruction of harmf ul
birds and animals has in view the
protection of the more valuable crops
and live stock
Questions are constantly arising as
TO whether some wild animal or bird
is beneficial or injurious. whether it
does enough good at one season to
compensate for injury at another and
how the useful species may be pro-
tected or even increased in numbers
and how the Injurious may he curbed
or, when necessary. destroyed.
Study of Dist ribution.
1t is one function of the Biological
Survey to study in the field and to
map the geographic distribution of
wild animals and birds. Surveys al
ready have been made of many States
and of parts of Alaska, Canada and
Mexico, including Lower California,
and investi tigations have been made in
Central and South America, Porto
Rico and the Hawaiian Islands.
Another phase of the work has to
10 with the examination of the
stomach contents of birds. mammals,
amphibia and reptiles. Many thou
sands of these have been studied and
from the information obtained the
economic influence OF these creatures
is determined. The food of more than
$4,000 birds has been critically exam
ined under the microscope and the
good and bad traits of the species
thus revealed.
Food of Birds.
The activities of some of our birds
are truly remarkable. A pair of barn
owls inhabited one OF the towers of
the Smithsonian Institution many
years. Periodical visits were made to
their roost and the fragments of un-
dfgested food gathered. In this mate
rial, which the owls secured virtually
in the shadow of the Capitol, were
the remains of no less than 1.lOO
meadow rfice, nearly 500 house mice
and 134 rats.
Some of the strictly insectivorous
birds also have established enviable
records as pest destroyers. The stom-
ach of a nighthawk recently exam
ined contained over $50 insects of 5S
different kinds. One flicker was
found to have eaten more than 5000
ants at a meal, and as many as 250
tent caterpillars have been taken
Attraction of Benefaetors.
knowledge gained through the
study of the food habits OF birds has
been applied in steps taken for the
attraction of beneficial species and
the improvement of hunting grounds
in the planting OF suitable fruit and
seed bearing plants. Such areas may
be made permanently attractive to
bird life, especially during the winter
months.
Bird Observation-Disclosures.
We all know that some birds fol-
low regular seasonal migrations, and
we have a hazy notion that in Win
ter they go South somewhere. 1t was
fully expected when the banding of
birds was first undertaken. to find
that many of our birds wintered in
Central America and the West Indies,
and this expectation has been borne
out by the studies conducted. There
were some wholly unexpected results,
however, such as the recovery in West