ORGANIZATION OF LAND COMMUNITIES 55 



be more or fewer seasonal subdivisions and their 

 time limits may differ. 



The data given in Fig. 1 for animals other than 

 birds and mammals are for the strata of the forest 

 on or near the forest floor. This diagram largely 

 disregards the food and shelter interactions within 

 the community but is based primarily upon the 

 numbers of animals taken at weekly collecting 

 trips throughout the year. The data so collected 

 must be interpreted with many of the reservations 

 suggested in the preceding chapter. Results so 

 gained cannot be an accurate picture of the or- 

 ganization of an animal community; they do 

 present the numerical structure as found during 

 the period of study and the data indicate the 

 type of organization that probably exists. 



Although the data diagrammed in Fig. 1 will 

 repay careful study; it is not needed to compre- 

 hend the main point presented, which is that 

 around a permanent nucleus of important, in- 

 fluential members of such a community, there 

 exists a series of seasonal sub-communities fre- 

 quently called societies, whose importance waxes 

 and wanes with the season. Such a diagram does 

 not give much more of a picture of the true organ- 

 ization of an animal community than does a 

 president's report that shows the number of 

 faculty members, and of the different sorts of 



