Evans (1953) considered fitting the negative binomial distribution and other distributio...

Evans (1953) considered fitting the negative binomial distribution and other distributions to a number of data sets that arose in ecological studies. Two of these sets will be used in this problem. The first data set gives frequency counts of Glaux maritima made in 500 contiguous 20-cm² quadrants. For the second data set, a plot of potato plants 48 rows wide and 96 ft long was examined. The area was split into 2304 sampling units consisting of 2-ft lengths of row and in each unit the number of potato beetles was counted. Fit Poisson and negative binomial distributions, and comment on the goodness of fit. For these data, the method of moments should be fairly efficient.