ECOLOGICAL SURVEYS 13 



Storer (1924). Other ecological surveys that may 

 be mentioned are those of Zion Canyon in Utah 

 (Woodbury, 1933), of cave animals in the Carlsbad 

 Cavern in New Mexico by Bailey (1928), of the 

 vertebrates of the Kara Kum Desert in Turkestan 

 by Kashkarov and Kurbatov (1930), of prairie and 

 poplar wood animals in southern Manitoba by Bird 

 (1930), of sand-dune arthropods in Finland by 

 Krogerus (1932), of coral reef and mangrove swamp 

 animals on the Low Isles in the Pacific by Stephenson 

 and others (1931), of marine and littoral communi- 

 ties in Massachusetts by Allee (1923), and of Arctic 

 heath and willow scrub by Longstaff and others 

 (1932). 



We have now glanced at the position of animal 

 ecology surveys in the British Isles and abroad. It 

 can be seen that rapid progress is being made in what 

 is a comparatively fresh field. We may pause a 

 moment to inquire what general impression is left by 

 a perusal of all these surveys of different animal 

 communities. First we notice that very few workers, 

 even when they wished to, have been able to make 

 complete surveys of all animal groups living in one 

 general habitat, let alone those living in one area. 



Secondly, although most of the surveys are of high 

 standard, they have been undertaken for a variety 

 of motives, and to some extent form a random series. 

 Many large gaps in our knowledge remain. Thus in 

 the British Isles, no complete survey of all the animals 

 of an oak wood, of a beech wood, of Festuca grass- 

 moor, of hedgerows, of reedswamp, of sand dunes, or 

 of ponds, has yet been carried out. From the point 

 of view of comprehensive ecological surveys of animal 

 life, the British Isles still remain largely virgin 

 country to the scientist. There is no central museum 

 or office in which all these survey operations can be 

 co-ordinated. This field of work oilers also the 

 fascination of exploring the ammal communities on 

 the hundreds of islands, large and small, which make 



