46 ANIMAL LIFE AND SOCIAL GROWTH 



conditions, one can soon begin to pick out the 

 important men and movements and to separate 

 them from those that are merely active or nu- 

 merous. One may find that university policies 

 and events are controlled by forces far removed 

 from a given campus, just as an unfavorable 

 summer in Canada may so affect our migrating 

 birds that millions of insects are left alive that 

 would otherwise furnish food for the horde of 

 spring and fall birds of passage. 



In brief, one cannot really understand the work- 

 ings of so relatively simple a thing as a university 

 community without an intimate, and sympathetic, 

 though critical knowledge of the many complexi- 

 ties arising from the different sorts of contacts 

 between its senile, mature and juvenile elements 

 and between these and the other communities 

 which they touch. 



This method of personal acquaintance with 

 the life of animals was the ideal of the older 

 naturalists, Fabre, John Burroughs and Thomp- 

 son-Seton, to name only three. By this method, 

 one learns not alone from notebook entries, why 

 the individual X mentioned above, engages in 

 his varied activities but still more because of his 

 understanding of the reactions to be expected 

 from X as an individual. 



