First, there are three kinds of dancers: those
which whirl almost uniformly toward the right, those
which whirl just as uniformly toward the left, and
those which whirl about as frequently in one direction
as in the other. To illustrate, No. 2 of Table
2 may be characterized as a “right whirler,”
for he turned to the right almost uniformly. In
the case of the 6 P.M. count, for example, he turned
285 times to the right, not once to the left.
No. 152, on the contrary, should be characterized as
a “left whirler,” since he almost always
turned to the left. From both of these individuals
No. 210 is distinguished by the fact that he turned
now to the left, now to the right. For him the
name “mixed whirler” seems appropriate.
Second, the amount of activity, as indicated by the
number of times an individual turns in a circle within
five minutes, increases regularly and rapidly from
9 A.M. to 8 P.M. According to the general averages
which appear at the bottom of Table 2, the average
number of circles executed by the males at 9 A.M.
was 89.8 as compared with 207.1 at 8 P.M. In other
words, the mice dance more in the evening than during
the day.
Third, as it appears in a comparison of the general
averages of Tables 2 and 3, the females dance more
than the males, under the conditions of observation.
At 9 A.M. the males circled 89.8 times, the females
151.0 times; at 8 P.M. the males circled 207.1 times,
the females, 279.0 times.
Fourth, according to the averages for the six counts
made with each individual, as they appear in Table
4, the males turn somewhat more frequently to the
left than to the right (the difference, however, is
not sufficient to be considered significant); whereas,
the females turn much more frequently to the right
than to the left. I do not wish to emphasize
the importance of this difference, for it is not improbable
that counts made with a larger number of animals,
or even with another group of twenty, would yield
different results.
TABLE 2
NUMBER or WHIRLS TO THE RIGHT AND TO THE LEFT DURING
FIVE-MINUTE INTERVALS AS DETERMINED BY COUNTS MADE
AT
SIX DIFFERENT HOURS, FOR EACH OF TEN MALE DANCERS
NUMBER 9 A.M 11 A.M. 2
P.M.
OF
ANIMAL RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT
LEFT
