METHODS 165 



some extent using other people (systematists) to do their 

 work ! 



4. This feeling is natural enough, and arises from the fact 

 that a systematist has two distinct functions : one is to describe, 

 classify, and name all the species that exist (or have existed) ; 

 the other is to identify specimens for other people, especially 

 when elaborate technique and considerable skilled knowledge 

 are required in the process. Now, it is only recently that the 

 animal kingdom has begun to be completely explored. The 

 systematist is still busy putting his own house in order, or, 

 what is also often the case, putting in order the houses of other 

 people who have died leaving them in a considerable mess. 

 But in a great many groups of animals, we are really in sight 

 of the time when there will be comparatively little purely 

 descriptive work and classifying of species ; although, to the 

 study of the exact limits of species and varieties, and what 

 they are, there will never be an end. The point is that the 

 system of classification is rapidly becoming standardised, and 

 we shall, in the near future, be able at least to reach agreement 

 (often arbitrary enough) as to what is meant by any specific 

 name. It follows from what has been said, that the task of 

 the systematist will become more and more that of the man 

 who identifies specimens for other people, and less and less 

 that of the describer of new species. 



5. One of the biggest tasks confronting any one engaged 

 upon ecological survey work is that of getting all the animals 

 identified. Indeed, it is usually impossible to get all groups 

 identified down to species, owing to lag in the systematic 

 study of some of them (e.g. Planarian worms). The material 

 collected may either be worked out by the ecologist himself 

 or he may get the specimens identified by experts. The latter 

 plan is the better of the two, since it is much more sensible to 

 get animals identified properly by a man who knows them well, 

 than to attain a fallacious sense of independence by working 

 them out oneself — wrong. Also, in the majority of cases, 

 there is simply not time for the ecologist to work out all 

 the material himself, and it seems certain that nearly all 

 primary survey work will in the future have to be carried on by 



