THE WILDLIFE SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 
 
 
                                  Summer Issue-1947, 
 
 
PROGRAM      ANNOUNCEMENT        and 
Official Call for Papers, 13th North 
American Wildlife Conference: 
  More than 50 papers will be selected 
for the forthcoming Conference, to be 
held in the Jefferson Hotel, St. Louis, 
Missouri, March 8, 9 and 10, 1948. Four 
to 5 speakers will be scheduled for 
each of the general sessions listed, and 
6 for each of the technical. No alter- 
nate speakers will be scheduled. All 
papers together with discussion from 
the floor will be printed in the pub- 
lished Transactions. 
  Persons having papers to present are 
urged to contact the-Chairman of the 
appropriate session at once. If the 
paper is not used in that particular 
panel, the request will be referred to 
the Program Committee. The Confer- 
ence is open to anyone, but the pro- 
gram deadline is December 15. 
 
     TECHNICAL SESSIONS 
     Subject and Date of Meeting 
   Chairman and Mailing Address 
1. Game and     Fish  Stocking-when 
   needed? (Monday afternoon, March 
   8)-Richard Gerstell, Animal Trap 
   Company of America, Lititz, Pa. 
2. Agricultural Wildlife  (Mo n day 
   afternoon, March   8)-Daniel L. 
   Leedy, Coop. Wildlife Unit, Ohio 
   State U., Columbus 1, Ohio. 
3. Coastal & Marine Wildlife (Tuesday 
   morning, March 9)-C. E. Addy, 
   Fish & Wildlife Service, 65 State 
   St., Newburyport, Mass. 
4. Range & Forest Wildlife (Tuesday 
   morning, March 9)-Ben Glading, 
   Division of Fish & Game, Ferry 
   Bldg., San Francisco, Calif. 
5. Wildlife of Wet Lands & Inland 
   Waters   (Wednesday   m o r n i n g, 
   March 10)-Karl F. Lagler, Dep't. 
   of Zoology, University of Michigan, 
   Ann Arbor 
6. Harvesting Wildlife Crops Wednes- 
   day imorning, March     10)-Bruce 
   F. Stiles, State Conservation Com- 
   mission, Des Moines, Iowa. 
 
      GENERAL SESSIONS 
  Applications for a place on the gen- 
eral session programs should be sent 
directly to the Wildlife Management 
Institute, 822  Investment Building, 
Washington 5, D. C. 
    Subject and Date of Meeting 
    Chairman and Mailing Address 
1. Wildlife Research-how     and for 
   what? (Monday morning, March 8) 
   Harrison F. Lewis, Dep't of Mines 
   and   Resources, Ottawa, Ontario, 
   Canada. 
2. Ducks Needs Being Ducked (Mon- 
   day evening, March 8) -Win. C. 
   Adams, Dep't of Conservation, Al- 
   bany 7, New York. 
3. Wildlife Horizons-1948 (Tuesday 
   afternoon, March 9)-P. J. Hoff- 
 
 
   master, Dep't of Conservation, Lan- 
   sing, Michigan. 
4. The Uninformed Public--a bottle- 
   neck (Wednesday afternoon, March 
   10)-Frank    Dufresne, Fish   and 
   Wildlife Serv., Merchandise Mart, 
   Chicago 54, Ill. 
   Early reservations will assure the 
desired  hotel accommodations. The 
annual banquet of the Conference will 
be staged on Tuesday evening, March 
9, and arrangements have been made 
for a non-speaker affair. 
Indiana is Host to Midwest Wildlife 
             Conference 
  The ninth Midwest Wildlife Confer- 
ence is to be held at Purdue Univer- 
sity December 9, 10 and 11, 1947. Those 
planning to attend should note that 
these dates come during the middle of 
the week (Tuesday, Wednesday and 
Thursday). This schedule is necessary 
because facilities for housing those 
planning to attend and for meeting 
places are already scheduled for uni- 
versity functions on weekends. 
  A first call for papers has already 
been issued. Those desiring to submit 
papers pertaining to fish   or other 
aquatic resources should get in touch 
with: 
  DR. WILLIAM E. RICKER 
  Department of Zoology 
  Indiana University 
  Bloomington, Indiana 
papers on any other pertinent subject 
should be sent to: 
  DR. CHARLES M. KIRKPATRICK 
  Dept. of Forestry and Conservation 
  Purdue University 
  Lafayette, Indiana 
       That Civil Service Exam 
  Thorough dissatisfaction with the 
last junior biologist examination has 
been expressed by many who took it 
and by some who must hire men from 
the Civil Service register. The exam- 
Ination for junior biologists for ex- 
ample was no different than      that 
given for junior home economists. The 
questions were general in nature and 
were designed only to test the exam- 
inees general intelligence rather than 
his biological knowledge. It might be 
presumed that if this type of examina- 
tion is to be given in the future, there 
would   be  little incentive for the 
prospective biologist seeking federal 
employment to take courses in biology 
or wildlife management. Employers too 
would be at a disadvantage if they had 
no basis for judging a prospective 
employee's training. 
  This is a matter which affects the 
efforts of the Society to maintain high 
professional standards and    of the 
schools which seek to provide adequate 
biological training. 
  Opinion on the matter is divided. 
Frank C. Edminister who is serving as 
chairman of the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture Board of Civil Service Ex- 
aminers for the 14 Northeastern States 
 
 
in addition to his regular duties as 
Regional Biologist for the Soil Con- 
servation Service gives his side of the 
case in the next item.         Ed. 
  I should like to comment on your 
  criticism of the Junior Biologist Civil 
  Service examination, near the front of 
  the Newsletter. I feel that your criti- 
  cism is unjust and I think that I am 
in a position to analyze it rather fairly 
since I am now serving as the Chair- 
man of the U. S. Department of Agri- 
culture's Board of Civil Service Exam- 
iners for the 14 Northeastern States, 
as well as carrying on my position as 
Biologist.- Our Civil Service office 
handles the decentralized work of the 
Civil Service Commission involving 
examinations and setting up eligibility 
registers for all positions peculiar to 
the Department of Agriculture. This 
included two biologist options in the 
recent series of Junior Agricultural 
Assistant examinations.    The  Civil 
Service Commission has adopted the 
policy of using a general type of writ- 
ten examination not directly related to 
the subject matter of the examination 
involved. Their reason for this is that 
heretofore, the subject matter exami- 
nations had duplicated the examinating 
of candidates that had already been 
done by the colleges in their own 
training and examination work and by 
the experience gained by the appli- 
cants which they can set forth as a 
matter of record. On the other hand 
the examinations heretofore had not 
selected men for jobs on the basis of 
their innate capabilities for certain 
types of work. These factors are not 
related to subject-matter knowledge 
but related to the general mental abil- 
ity, the ability to get along with people 
and to reason accurately. It is our feel- 
ing that the subject matter examina- 
tions used heretofore have not added 
much to our ability to find suitable 
applicants over and above what the 
applicant could furnish as a matter of 
record in the way of training and ex- 
perience. If a man has been trained 
from four to seven years in biology 
and has been properly examined by a 
reputable school, then why should we 
judge him on the basis of another 
single examination covering a very 
few hours and think that that is a 
better  method   than  his long-time 
record. I do not think that it is. Per- 
sonally, I am much in favor of the 
present system. Through it I think we 
can judge the candidates on the basis 
of their school and experience record 
more accurately    for their subject- 
matter knowledge than we have been 
able to do heretofore. Then too, the 
type of written examination now be- 
ing given will help weed out some 
types of individuals who even though 
they may know the subject matter 
may not be personally suited for the 
types of work involved. 
                   F. C. EDMINISTER