COMMUNITY ANALYSIS 47 



If correctly applied, this method will use all 

 the data collected by quadrat and other methods 

 of study, all the results of controlled experiments 

 and will interpret these in the light of personal 

 knowledge too securely held to need notebook 

 confirmation. Ideally such workers "measure 

 that which can be measured and count that which 

 can be counted, but remember always that the 

 figures obtained are purely relative" and are to 

 be interpreted in the light of all other knowledge 

 of community organization that can be gained. 



From such considerations, one is driven to the 

 conclusion that we cannot understand the working 

 of an animal community until we have lived in it 

 or in one similar for years, insofar as that is 

 humanly possible, studying it meanwhile by 

 night as well as by day, in winter as well as in 

 summer, individually as well as by communities, 

 and the community as well as the individuals that 

 compose it. We must attempt to get first hand 

 knowledge of all the forces acting and even then 

 we may be led astray, for how can a man know 

 all the forces that control the behavior of a bum- 

 ble-bee? 



