OKLAHOMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 51 



with three young birds found July 10, 1911. 



'^Sialia currucoides : Mountain Bluebird. Winter resident, 

 very numerous. Sixt3f-one seen on Marselus Bros, ranch Decem- 

 ber 3, 1918. 



VI. PRESENT DAY OBJECTIVES IN ZOOLOGY 



A. Richards 



From the Zoology Department, University of Oklahoma. 



Contribution No. 32, Second Series. 



An attempt to define present day objectives in Zoology involves 

 an examination of the problems upon which professional zoologists 

 are working and an inquiry into the reasons for choosing these 

 particular problems. The principal aim of science is to discover 

 the character of the facts which constitute the realities of nature 

 and to approximate as near as possible the explanation of these 

 facts. The criterion of the accuracy of a scientific explanation, 

 theory, or hypothesis is the extent to which predictions based upon 

 it are borne out in subsequent happenings, and this implies the 

 method of experiment. 



There are few conclusions in science that may be regarded 

 as absolutely and fina'.ly proven, for in the nature of the case 

 absolute proof is unattainable. We regard conclusions in science 

 as proved if they are supported by the available scientific evidence, 

 if they are not contradicted bj' any scientific evidence, and if they 

 are supported as time goes on by new discoveries. Persons not 

 schooled in science or scientific logic sometimes demand a measure 

 of proof which is unattainable. Many of the facts that science 

 deals wiih involve processes of extremely long duration compared 

 with which the span of human life is but a moment. The nature 

 of the proof which can be used for such matters is very different 

 from that which demands a short experiment that can be performed 

 in a few moments with test tubes. 



In the lifetime of many persons now living biology has de- 

 veloped from a descriptive science into an experimental one; 

 indeed the most marked tendency of present day researches is the 

 reliance upon the method of experiment and the attempt to state 

 biological results in the exact terms of chemnstry, physics and 

 mathematics. In its early stages biology was purely descriptive. 

 The problems which occupied the time of our great grandfathers 

 in zoology were systematic in character. That is, they dealt with 

 the classification of animals and the description of species. Then 

 came the period of morphology and comparative anatomy, in 

 which the attempt was made to trace structural relationships be- 



