14 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



Charleston survey, and this will presently be in press as a 

 bulletin of the State Laboratory. 



Doctor Shelford has made an extensive study of the be- 

 havior characters of an animal community inhabiting a swift 

 stream. The results show that the various species of animals 

 of this community are in agreement with respect to their 

 reactions to current and bottom — that is, they select stones 

 and avoid sand, and select strong current, placing themselves 

 with their heads upstream. Their reactions to light and the 

 positions they take up with reference to stones in the experi- 

 ments, are in accord with their distribution in the rapids. The 

 animals of a pool community, studied in a similar way, were 

 found to give reactions decidedly different from those of the 

 rapids community. Physiological responses are thus shown to 

 be matters of the first importance in ecology. 



Doctor Pepoon has accumulated further data in his study of 

 the flora of the Chicago area, his list of which now numbers 

 1.800 species of the higher plants. He is studying the flora 

 of the north shore as far as Waukegan, and Dr. Frank Gates 

 has the Waukegan area itself. In connection with these 

 studies, Prof. E. J. Hill is working upon the ecology of the 

 Calumet-Des Plaines region, and Prof. L. M. Umbach on that 

 of the DuPage valley area. It is hoped that the manuscript of 

 this co-operative group may be ready for the printer by April 

 15. Doctor Pepoon has also begun an elaborate paper on the 

 driftless area of Jo Daviess county, which will bring together 

 all his materials concerning the plant problems of this peculiar 

 region. 



Mr. Baker is continuing his interesting studies comparing 

 the remains of glacial life found in the deposits of Lake Chi- 

 cago with the post-glacial plants and animals of the Great 

 Lake region, with special reference to the origin of our pres- 

 ent fauna and flora. These studies have extended to south- 

 western Michigan, where there are sedimentary deposits of 

 the middle and later stages of the lake. Ancient marl beds in 

 Pipestone Lake, Magician Lake, and in the old swamp near 

 Buchanan have been examined, and their relation to the ancient 

 Chicago outlet and to the old Kankakee outlet is now being 

 worked out. Mr. Baker's work on Pleistocene life is now 

 nearly completed, and embraces a list of all the plants and an- 

 imals recorded from inter-glacial and post-glacial deposits of 

 all the states surrounding the Great Lake region and southern 

 Canada. 



