r ,ce] ^ TA TIS TICS FROM COL LEGE C LA SSES E\ ' BIRD S TUD V 271 



STATISTICS FROM COLLEGE CLASSES IN BIRD STUDY 



BY EDWARD L. RICE 

 Professor of Zoology, Ohio Wcsleyan University 



In the spring term of 1902 a course in bird study was introduced 

 as an elective in the curriculum of Ohio Wesleyan University, Dela- 

 ware. Ohio. It seemed a matter of some interest to determine 

 approximately the amount of knowledge (or ignorance) of our com- 

 mon birds possessed by the average student; and data were collected 

 in the years 1902. 1903, and 1904, upon which the following tabula- 

 tions are based. The results have been reported before the Ohio State 

 Academy of Science and also before the zoological section of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Science, but have not been 

 published. 



Data were secured from 126 students, 55 men and 71 women. 

 These students were drawn from all courses and all classes, a few 

 preparatory students being included. The great majority had had no 

 previous collegiate work in biological science, although a few were 

 somewhat advanced scientific students. In a word, they were 

 average college men and women. 



Mimeographed copies of the list of 75 species of birds shown in Table 

 1 were distributed at the beginning of the course, and the students 

 were directed to mark the names of those birds with which they were 

 acquainted. For the sake of comparison similar records were col- 

 lected at the close of the course. Some explanation was given at the 

 beginning of the course to eliminate so far as possible the difficulty 

 arising from the multiplicity of popular names and from the misin- 

 terpretation of familiarity with a name for real acquaintance with the 

 bird. But, in spite of these precautions, error could not be wholly 

 avoided; and the personal equation of the students furnishing the 

 data introduces another element of uncertainty, so that the results can 

 be considered only as an approximation to the real conditions. Cer- 

 tain cases of palpable error will be commented upon in following 

 paragraphs. 



In 1902 the comparatively recently awakened interest in nature 

 study in the secondary schools had hardly begun to make its influence 

 felt in the colleges of Ohio. But the rapid spread of nature-study in 



