IXTUODTXTIOX 



The establishment of the Tropical Research station m 

 British Guiana by the New York Zoological Society marks 

 the beginning of a wholly new type of biological work, capa- 

 ble of literally illimitable expansion. It provides for inten- 

 sive study, in the open field, of the teejning animal life of 

 the tropics. 



One pleasant feature of the station is the cordial hos- 

 pitalitv it extends to all naturalists. Jealousy is regarded 

 as utterlv unworthv, and the whole effort of the station is 

 to secure, from whatever source, the most thorough research- 

 possible. Every original investigator tit to work in the field 

 is sure of an eager welcome and of all possible aid in his 

 studies. 



The time has passed when we can afi'ord to accept as 

 satisfactorv a science of animal life whose professors are 

 either mere roaming field collectors or mere closet cata- 

 logue writers w^ho examine and record minute differences 

 in "specimens" precisely as philatelists examine and record 

 minute differences in postage stamps — and with about the 

 same breadth of view and power of insight into the essen- 

 tial. Tittle is to be gained bv that kind of "intensive" col- 

 lectin"- and cataloguing which bears fruit onlv in innumer- 

 able little pamphlets describing with meticulous care un- 

 important new^ subspecies, or new "species" hardly to be 

 distinguished from those already long kno^^^l. Such pamph- 

 lets have almost no real interest except for the infrequent 

 rival specialists who read them with quarrelsome interest. 



Of course a good deal can still be done bv the collector 

 who covers a wide field, if in addition to being a collector 

 he is a good field naturalist and a close and intelligent ob- 

 server; and there must be careful laboratory study of series 

 of specimens of all kinds. But the stage has now been 

 reached when not onlv life histories, but even taxonomic 



