Many species of cuckoos are brood parasites. The females lay their eggs in the nests of smaller bird species that then raise the young cuckoos at the expense of their own young. The question might be asked, “Do the cuckoos lay the same size eggs regardless of the size of the bird whose nest they use?” Data on the lengths, in millimeters, of cuckoo eggs found in the nests of six bird species—Meadow Pipit, Tree Pipit, Hedge Sparrow, Robin, Pied Wagtail, and Wren—are provided on the WeissStats CD. These data were collected by the late O. Latter in 1902 and used by L. Tippett in his text The Methods of Statistics (New York: Wiley, 1952, p. 176).
Use the technology of your choice to do the following tasks.
a. Obtain individual normal probability plots and the standard deviations of the samples.
b. Perform a residual analysis.
c. Use your results from parts (a) and (b) to decide whether conducting a one-way ANOVA test on the data is reasonable. If so, also do parts (d) and (e).
d. Use a one-way ANOVA test to decide, at the 5% significance level, whether the data provide sufficient evidence to conclude that a difference exists among the means of the populations from which the samples were taken.
e. Interpret your results from part (d).