The Distribution of IRAS Galaxies Towards the Bootes Void

We have completed a redshift survey of 342 galaxies detected by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) in the direction of the Bootes void discovered by Kirshner et al. The number density of IRAS galaxies is well determined from the shallower full-sky redshift survey of Strauss et al. We find four IRAS galaxies within the void as defined by Kirshner et al., of which three are part of a complete sample, implying a density depression of a factor of 4. The underdense region continues to a distance of at least 4000 km s^-1^ from the nominal center of the void. Three of the IRAS galaxies studied in this paper were previously unknown. These galaxies have emission-line spectra characteristic of H II regions, and red continuum magnitudes ranging from 16 to 17.5 mag, and thus are bright enough to have been detected in a wide-angle redshift survey as deep as that of Kirshner et al. The luminosity function derived from this sample is in good agreement with that of Lawrence et al.