SECONDARY COMMUNITIES 15 
20a). Panthers and wildcats were found occasionally in the forests (20a). 
Beavers and otters, once numerous, had almost gone (20). Among the 
rodents, the varying hare disappeared about 1834. 
In 1838 timber wolves and coyotes were still numerous (20a). The 
deer was the most common prey of the timber wolf, but these failing, they 
attacked sheep, pigs, calves, poultry, and even young colts (20). For 
some time the increase of wolves kept pace with the increase of live 
stock. Reptiles were most common in the heavily timbered country. 
As this was cleared, they disappeared, while the prairie reptiles were 
destroyed largely by prairie fires. 
The coyote disappeared about 1844, while the timber wolf did not 
entirely disappear until about ten years later (22). The red fox, quite 
common at one time along Lake Michigan, also disappeared from this 
locality, about this time, although still found occasionally throughout 
the state. The gray fox, once quite common, was no longer to be seen 
after 1854 (22). The black bear and badger had entirely disappeared at 
the same date, although the latter was still common farther south (22). 
The fisher, formerly seen frequently in the heavy timber along Lake 
Michigan, was no longer to be found. The mink, skunk, otter, and 
weasel were still common (22). 
The pocket gopher and the badger, once very abundant, were very 
rare in 1854 (22). The Canada lynx and wildcat were still abundant, 
but of the panthers a single individual was known to have been seen in 
Cook Countyprevious to 1854(22). The decline and disappearance of the 
carnivores was followed by the greatest abundance of the deer. Accord- 
ing to Wood (21) the deer began to disappear from Central Illinois about 
1865 and had totally disappeared in 1870. Their disappearance from 
Cook County probably antedated this. The opossum, at one time not 
uncommon in this vicinity, was now rare except in Southern Illinois. 
The only trace left of beavers was the remains of their dams in several 
streams (22). 
4. RECOGNIZABLE SECONDARY COMMUNITIES 
We may recognize the following communities in the order of their 
degree of difference from the primeval ones: 
a) Communities of roadside, fence-row, and abandoned field vegetation. 
—These are composed chiefly of animals which commonly inhabit weeds 
and thickets along the edges of woods. Since these are most nearly 
like the thicket or forest-margin communities treated in chap. xiii, 
they are not discussed here. 
