301 



competition for food, yet so much food was present in the form of 

 insects and fruit, that this was probably an unimportant factor. Man 

 has done much to change the character of the vertebrate hfe of the 

 woods. Hunters frequently visit the place with the result that game 

 (squirrels, rabbits, bob-whites) has become very scarce there. Dur- 

 ing the last two years, furthermore, man has almost destroyed this 

 as a habitat for wood-loving animals by timber-cutting. A little of 

 the upland woods is left and most of that on the Embarras slope; 

 practically all of the lowland woods is removed. Plate LXXIX 

 shows some of the conditions as they now (1914) are. The timber 

 in the lower part of the south ravine has not been much disturbed. 

 Here, in the spring of 19 14, many maples (Acer saccharum) were 

 tapped for sap. 



Insufficient data were obtained concerning the effect of the sur- 

 rounding region upon the vertebrate life of Bates woods. All the 

 species found there live normally in woodland regions. Though birds 

 undoubtedly carry fruits and seeds of the plants in the woods to the 

 more open region about it, thus tending to extend the wooded area, 

 neverthless the counteracting .operations of man prevent their doing 

 much in this way. 



Summary and Conclusions 



When a careful search in a very typical part of central Illinois 

 for regions with features like those of the original prairies and for- 

 ests reveals no better places than the piece of Clover Leaf right-of- 

 way (Station I) and the small piece of woods (Station II), and when 

 we note that both of these have become so modified since our work 

 began in 1910 that they are no longer of special interest, biologically, 

 we are once more made aware of the importance of studying any 

 remnants of wild uncultivated Illinois land, or any areas having con- 

 ditions similar to these, in order that we may have a few facts, at 

 least, concerning the history of our interesting fauna. 



Station I, although it appeared to have more primitive conditions 

 than any other piece of ground near Charleston, had a vertebrate 

 fauna very different from that of the old, uncultivated prairies, ac- 

 cording to the little information available concerning the life of the 

 latter. Some idea of this prairie life is given by C. E. Wilson, who, 

 in writing of the prairies of Coles County,* tells of the buffalo that 

 used to live there and the great number of prairie wolves that did 

 much damage during the period of the early settlement of the county. 



*History of Coles County, Illinois, in Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois. Mun- 

 sell Publishing Co., Chicago. 1906. 



