ANIMAL ECOLOGY 



I. AIM, CONTENT, AND POINT OF VIEW 



ECOLOGY has no aim, but ecologists have. The 

 problems of the ecologist are not fundamentally 

 different from those of any other kind of naturalist. 

 The superficial differences in aim are due to the 

 different points of view, or methods of approach, 

 rather than to any essential difference in the char- 

 acter of the problems. 



The essentially biological core of ecology may be 

 best shown by considering the relation which this 

 science bears to other branches of biology, a relation 

 which has been admirably expressed by the eminent 

 physiologist, Burdon-Sanderson ('94, pp. 438-439), 

 as follows : 



"Now the first thing that strikes us in beginning 

 to think about the activities of an organism is that 

 they are naturally distinguishable into two kinds, 

 according as we consider the action of the whole 

 organism in its relation to the external world or to 

 other organisms, or the action of the parts or organs 

 in their relation to each other. The distinction to 

 which we are thus led between the internal and 

 external relation of plants and animals has of course 

 always existed, but has only lately come into such 



