GENERAL METHODS 699 



compartments of a size that could be conveniently covered in one day by a small crew of men. 

 The compartments varied from 130 to 300 acres of woodland and as far as possible each was 

 surrounded by open land. Some blocks of woodland were too large and blazed lines had to 

 suflSce as boundaries. These sub-units of the larger areas were mimeographed for field and 

 office use. 



The division into compartments also aided in the analysis of data by providing a means of 

 obtaining sampling-variations. Observations regarding a single item were repeated for each 

 compartment and the consistency or degree of sampling error could be measured for each year. 

 For example, grouse flushes in relation to cover type when analyzed by compartments within 

 years, yielded a much better picture of the consistency of the grouse cover type use relation- 

 ship. 



Compartment maps were made to a scale of 660 feet to the inch. These were mimeographed 

 in outline form on 8V2 by 14-inch paper with proper titles. 



In addition to field and office use, the more detailed maps were employed in many prob- 

 lems dealing with the extent and interspersion of various cover types. 



Personnel 



Great care was taken in selecting field men. To this end graduate or undergraduate college 

 students with training in wildlife management or in closely related fields such as 

 forestry, botany or zoology, were employed where practical. 



The field forces were made up of the authors together \silh leaders and assistants. The 

 authors supervised the work on entire study areas, while crews consisting of a leader and his 

 assistants were responsible for the various compartments within an area. The leaders, chosen 

 for their experience or ability, recorded the data. The conscientiousness of the leader was an 

 important item affecting the results, since the assistants were mainly observers. It was found 

 that less care was needed in selecting the latter grouj). Relatively untrained men could be 

 initiated, in a short time, into the more or less standardized method of covering the compart- 

 ments and observing data. College students, older boys from Scout groups, CCC boys, WPA 

 men and local residents have, at different times been used as assistants. 



In connection with the work of analyzing the field records, draftsmen, bibliographers, 

 stenographers and clerks were employed. To some extent this force consisted of hand-picked 

 labor from WPA and student NYA programs, thus reducing costs. 



A survey of this kind cannot be carried out by field men alone. Therefore, special field and 

 laboratory work, requiring technically trained men, was handled by ornithologists, mamma- 

 logists, entomologists, botanists, foresters, engineers, nutritionists, biochemists, physicists, 

 statisticians, trappers, food habits investigators, physiologists and pathologists. 



Securing Observations 



The scope of the problems confronting the Investigation was very wide. Therefore a com- 

 plete (100 per cent) coverage of each study area by the strip method was used to yield the 

 most satisfactory data pertaining to the greatest number of the proposed problems. 



To carry out this method crews consisting of leaders, each with from one to four assistants, 

 according to tlie size of their compartments, were used. The men walked abreast at a given 

 distance apart, thus covering the unit in strips, back and forth from one edge to the other. 

 The end men acted as guides utilizing land marks or a compass to maintain a reasonably 

 straight line. Since cover utilized by the birds in relation to time of day constituted one of 



