PLAN OF THE COURSE AS A WHOLE 3 



wasted annually, the rat could be exterminated from the 

 continent within a year or even within a single month. 



Civic organization applies not only to the control of injuri- 

 ous forces, but equally to saving valuable species from exter- 

 mination. Lacking such organization, a number of species of 

 great value have already been exterminated from vast areas, 

 and several more are in imminent danger. A few of these, 



FIG. 2. Virginia deer 

 Photograph by George Shiras 



chiefly among our game birds and game and fur-bearing 

 animals, will receive attention in the appropriate chapters. 



At best, among the great number of such problems, we shall 

 be able to study only a few typical ones that touch the life 

 of the community most vitally. Three or four insect types 

 are all we shall have time for, but thousands of others may 

 be studied by similar methods. The purpose of the course is 

 thus to cultivate habits of observation, insights into the work- 

 ings of living nature, and, above all, civic ways of thinking and 

 civic methods of studying and of attacking such problems ; and 



