NOVEMBEB 3, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



57: 



dangers inherent in the further development 

 of the» presidential office in its present temper. 

 With unexpected corroboration of many men 

 of many minds, the autocracy of the college 

 president — to which President Pritchett has 

 called timely attention — was deplored, not 

 alone as undemocratic in principle and harsh 

 in practise, but as tending to undermine the 

 stability of the academic career, and as taking 

 from it its proper dignity, honor and station. 

 It is certainly notable that an occasion that 

 was convened to glorify the president — though 

 in some part only as the representative of his 

 university— the dominant theme of discussion 

 should take as its text the menace and evils 

 of this office. The inquiry was most amicably 

 and fairly conducted; no disturbing factor of 

 personal criticism intruded itself. It was ad- 

 mitted that the needs of the past — closely asso- 

 ciated with pioneering crudities and exacting 

 conditions — demanded dictatorial powers, cen- 

 tral responsibility, efficient and compromising 

 direction. Yet it was questioned whether this 

 type of government is at all promising for 

 present and future situations. Our universi- 

 ties have been built up too largely at the sacri- 

 fice of the academic career; and with material 

 success and the ambition to be big has come a 

 neglect of quality and of the true ends for 

 which universities are maintained. The fac- 

 ulty has paid all too heavily for the progress 

 which it has, with unacknowledged sacrifice, 

 made possible. The issue is thus nothing less 

 than the rehabilitation of the academic career; 

 the restoration of the faculty to a truly direct- 

 ive authority of the educational affairs of the 

 university; the withdrawal of the president to 

 the more modest office of the leading inter- 

 preter of faculty opinion, and the interpreta- 

 tion of the function of the board in a more 

 cooperative, less managerial tone. That in- 

 tense and hampering sense of accountability — 

 which President Pritchett has likewise empha- 

 sized — robs the professorial career of its essen- 

 tial worth; and this accountability directly 

 results from the autocratic government by 

 presidents and boards, that imposes policy 

 upon the faculty, and distributes with both a 

 grudging and an unjust hand rewards for 



facilitation of administrative measures. Nat- 

 urally, when stated thus baldly the charge 

 seems exaggerated and in many quarters 

 wholly inappropriate; yet, as a tendency, it 

 has real existence and unusual power to make 

 or mar the academic career. Analogies from 

 the business world have wrought havoc with ' 

 educational standards, and, unless signs fail, 

 this is to be one of the foremost of educational 

 questions; and it may be that the formal rais- 

 ing of this query will come to be regarded as 

 the memorable feature of the Illinois confer- 

 ences. — The OutlooTc. 



THE BIRD LIFE OF CENTBAL ILLINOIS. 



The Illinois State Laboratory of Natural 

 History is making a qualitative and quanti- 

 tative survey of the bird life of a typical grain 

 and cattle form of central Illinois, with the 

 intention of continuing and extending statis- 

 tical studies of this description until average 

 results are arrived at, good for the various 

 crops and regions of the state and for the 

 different seasons of the year. This is taken 

 up mainly as a study in ornithological ecology, 

 but it will nevertheless have an economic value 

 as helping to determine the real significance 

 of birds in relation to agriculture. 



The data are obtained by an expert field 

 ornithologist who, with a single companion, 

 crosses a four-hundred-acre farm in various 

 directions and at intervals of about four days, 

 the two observers traveling always fifty yards 

 apart and noting the species and numbers 

 of birds flushed on this strip between them. 

 They carry each time a copy of a plot of that 

 part of the farm covered by their trip, drawn 

 to a scale and showing the distribution and 

 areas of each of the crops. On this plot the 

 position of each bird observed is noted, the 

 series of diagrams thus giving a means of 

 determining the average bird population per 

 acre for each crop as well as for the entire area 

 covered. 



This work has been in progress since last 

 June, during which time the birds of some- 

 thing over 1,100 acres have thus been ac- 

 curately recognized and nurabered for three 

 summer months. The average was 2.5 birds 

 per acre, omitting English sparrows, or 3.8 



