272 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIE IV [2 . 8 -nov., .906 



the lower schools cannot fail to lead to a rapid advance in nature 

 knowledge on the part of college students in the immediate future. 

 In fact recent imperfect data, not included in these tabulations, seem 

 to indicate an already perceptible beginning of this advance. 



No reference will be made in the following paragraphs to any phase 

 of bird study other than identification. This is not due to an over- 

 estimate of the value of identification, which, like the alphabet or the 

 multiplication table, should be but a means to an end; rather it is clue 

 to the fact that the work of identification, unlike other phases of bird 

 study, gives a basis for at least an approximate quantitative measure- 

 ment of the student's knowledge, and so adapts itself admirably to 

 the purposes of the present study. 



The data collected should afford an answer to each of the following 

 questions: 



1. How many students know each bird ? 



2. How many birds does each student know ? 



The first of these questions is considered in Table 1. Here the 

 birds are arranged in the order of their familiarity at the beginning of 

 the course; and the numbers in the first column, headed " Before," 

 indicate the number of students claiming acquaintance with each 

 species. The third column, headed "After," indicates correspond- 

 ingly the number claiming such acquaintance at the end of the course. 



It will be no surprise to find the robin at the head of the list, 

 familiar to all the students but one, who was a new arrival from the 

 southwest and, apparently, from a region where the robin is locally 

 rare, if found at all. On the other hand it was a distinct shock to the 

 writer's country-bred mind to find that any man or woman could fail 

 to know such birds as the crow, the bluejay, and the bluebird; and 

 the number unfamiliar with these species is too great to be explained 

 on geographical or accidental grounds. 



Another interesting point is brought out by the figures of the second 

 column, entitled "Error." These indicate the number of students 

 claiming to know the respective species at the beginning of the 

 course, but recognizing their ignorance after three months of study. 

 In the case of the screech owl and turkey buzzard the number of 

 students claiming knowledge at the close of the course is actually 

 smaller than at the beginning. This is a point on which the 

 instructor prides himself, for there is no knowledge harder to impress 

 on a student than the knowledge of his own ignorance. The expla- 

 nation of the very large error in these two cases and certain others 



