54 KANSAS UNIVEESITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



The habits of any species are necessarily directly dependent, 

 in a great measure at least, upon the physical conditions under 

 which it lives, and a knowledge of habits and habitat are neces- 

 sarily so intimately connected that from a biological or ecolog- 

 ical standpoint they cannot be separated. As our knowledge of 

 the ecological relations of the species of a genus becomes more 

 complete, we will be prepared to consider the structural pecul- 

 iarities or adaptations of the different species, and so to have a 

 much clearer idea of the origin and significance of specific 

 characters. 



That, in many groups, the time for these considerations, ex- 

 cept in the more specialized cases, is not yet come, is perfectly 

 evident. Furthermore, I am not at all unacquainted with a 

 quite general revulsion to the too nearly universal tend- 

 ency to see in every animal or plant structure some advanta- 

 geous ecological adaptation, and in case direct observations do 

 not furnish proof of such adaptation, either to explain its ab- 

 sence on the ground of insufficient knowledge of the living 

 organism, or, as is too often the case, manufacture a pleasing 

 theory in explanation. With many of the expressions of this 

 feeling I am thoroughly in sympathy, but I cannot feel that the 

 proper way of disposing of the matter is to characterize ecology 

 as superficial or cheap and to ignore it entirely. 



Systematic work, as the term is too generally interpreted — the 

 description of species, the preparation of manuals with artificial 

 keys, and "a list of species collected" — is certainly indispen- 

 sable, but cannot be regarded as other than preliminary. In 

 its better sense — the determination of the origin and relation- 

 ship of species and groups, great and small — systematic work 

 has an immense and vastly important field for the future. 

 For this work the description and monographing of species 

 and the preparation of faunal lists" is important and must pre- 

 cede other work, but it cannot be considered as the ultimate 

 end of scientific investigation by any means. Much of the eco- 

 logical work which is being done must be regarded in the same 

 way — as preliminary work, the data of which will aid in the so- 

 il. Mr. Adams ('01) has expressed himself as follows: "The time is past when faunal lists 

 should be the aim of faunal studies. The study must not only be comparative, but genetic, and 

 much stress must be laid on the study of the habitat — not in a static, rigid sense, but as a fluc- 

 tnating or periodical medium. The bearing of faunal studies upon the problem of differentia- 

 tion and the origin of species is very close, and in our search for the factors we must not lose 

 the perspective, and overlook those factors which are fundamental and work through long pe- 

 riods of time." 



