THE ECOLOGICAL SURVEY on which this book is based began to be planned in
1942, and since 1945 has been mainly centred upon Oxford University's
estate at Wytham Woods, where a rich series of habitats from open ground
and limestone to woodland with many springs and marshes interspersed
occupies a hill set in riverine surroundings. Here biological research
workers from the University have accumulated a considerable body of
knowledge, some of which I have arranged in a general setting that
allows one to comprehend some of the inter-related parts of the whole
system. It is also intended to provide a framework for understanding
animal communities elsewhere. The ecological inquirer is, more than most
scien- tific people, apt to fmd himself lost in a large labyrinth of
interrelations and variables. The dictionary defmes a labyrinth as 'an
intricate structure of inter- communicating passages, through which it
is difficult to fmd one's way without a clue'. This could equally be a
figurative description of plant and animal communi- ties. The present
book seeks to provide a plan of construction of the labyrinth and a few
new clues that may help the inquirer to know where he is on the gene-
ral ecological map. In presenting this blue-print of animal communities
I have avoided giving long lists of species such as the botanist, with
his smaller kingdom, can handle fairly well.
