AN OUTLINE OF THE KELATIONS OF ANIMALS TO 

 THEIR INLAND EN^aIlONMENTS.^ 



By CHABLiEs C Adams, Ph.D. 



Professcrr of Forest Zoology, The New York State College of Forestry, at 



Syracuse University. 



THE DYNAMIC RELATIONS OF ANIMALS. 

 1. INTRODUCTORY NOTi:. 



As creatures of habit, the attitude of mind with which we approach 

 a scientific problem has much influence upon what we see in it or 

 get from it. iUthough the essence of life is activitj' — the response 

 of the changing organism to its changing environment — ^yet this 

 dynamic conception of animal relations, and all that it implies, has 

 not become as prevalent a mental habit among biologists as one might 

 expect. While some naturalists view the animal from a more or less 

 dynamic standpoint, they do not include a similar conception of the 

 relation of an anmial to its environment. Still others view the en- 

 vironment more or less dynamically but do not extend this concep- 

 tion to the animal, and thus both of these conceptions lack complete- 

 ness and are not thoroughgoing" and consistent. The study of ac- 

 tivities, or in other words the study of processes, has made great 

 progi'ess in the allied sciences, much to their advantage, and un- 

 doubtedly the prevalence of similar conceptions will lead to similar 

 advances in biology. 



In the present brief paper I have attempted to discuss only certain 

 phases of the problem with the idea of emphasizing the general prin- 

 ciples involved, and in the hope that it may aid in making these con- 

 ceptions of more practical value in mvestigation, and also facilitate an 

 understanding of the discussion contained in a report on the inver- 

 tebrates of the Charleston (Illinois) region, to ajDpear in a subsequent 

 paper of this volume of the Laboratory Bulletin.^ 



2. THE RELATIONS OF ANIMALS TO THEIR ENVIRONMENT. 



The study of animal ecology may be taken up from many sides and 

 in many ways. One of the most interesting and fundamental of these 



> Reprinted, with the addition of the footnotes, from the Bulletin of the Illinois State 

 Laboratory of Natural History, vol. 11, pp. 1-32, 1915. 

 *An Ecological Study of Prairie and Forost Invertebrates. Iv. c, pp. R3-280, 1915. 



515 



