Statistics on ornithological (bird) data collected from Heard Island in 1950-1951

The download file contains a scanned copy of correspondence, the report, and statistics from data collected on birds from Heard Island in approximately 1951 (the report is dated May 1951, so data collection must have occurred before this).

The original documents were not in the best condition, so unfortunately some of the scans are difficult to read.

Taken from part of the report:

For Heard Island birds, measurements on females, fresh and dry, and males, fresh and dry, were generally available. The data were therefore submitted to an analysis of variance (2x2 non-orthagonal treatment, interaction non-significant) to test for differences between the classifications.

When the difference between members of a classification was found to be non-significant, the distinction was disregarded and new means and variances were worked out, combining the results from both sub-classifications.

For example, if condition (wet or dry) was found to be non-significant, means for male and female were computed as if no sub-division into fresh and dry existed, and a pooled common variance was obtained from the variances within sex classifications.

Similarly, if neither male-female nor fresh-dry differences were significant, a grand mean for the island was computed, and the variance of teh whole set of data was taken to apply. This mean has been quoted as appropriate to all four categories, the coefficient of variation and the standard error of the mean being similarly quoted as the same for each sub-classification.

Note has been made of the number of observations, (n), on which the mean is based, and the number of degrees of freedom, (v), appropriate to the estimate of the standard deviation.

One further point may be mentioned here. Frequently, the dimensions of individual birds have been given without classification into male and female. It has been possible to utilise these measurements in the general analysis only when the sex-difference was not significant.

本下载文件包含1951年左右采集的赫德岛（Heard Island）鸟类相关数据的扫描件，涵盖往来函件、研究报告及统计结果（该报告落款日期为1951年5月，因此数据采集工作应在此之前完成）。由于原始文档保存状态不佳，部分扫描件存在难以辨认的情况。

本内容节选自该报告的部分章节：
针对赫德岛的鸟类数据，我们已获取雌性个体（新鲜样本与干燥样本）及雄性个体（新鲜样本与干燥样本）的各项测量值。因此，我们对该数据开展方差分析（analysis of variance，2×2非正交处理，交互作用不显著），以检验不同分类间的差异。当某一分类下的组间差异不显著时，我们将忽略该分类标准，并合并两个子分类的结果，重新计算均值与方差。
举例而言，若样本状态（新鲜或干燥）的组间差异不显著，则我们将忽略干湿分组，仅按雌雄分类计算均值，并从性别分类内的方差中合并得到总方差。同理，若雌雄差异与干湿差异均不显著，则我们将计算该岛鸟类数据的总均值，并采用全数据集的方差作为统一方差。该总均值将适用于所有四个分类组别，变异系数与均值标准误也将统一应用于各子分类。
本数据集已标注计算均值所基于的观测样本量（n），以及用于估计标准差的自由度（v）。
在此补充说明一点：部分鸟类个体的测量值未标注性别分类，仅当性别差异不显著时，这些测量值才可被纳入整体分析。