57 



accurate picture of the native plant and animal life of Illinois 

 as it actually exists in our fields, woods, and waters, and to 

 bring most prominently into view those parts of the subject 

 which have a peculiar educational or economic value. Especially 

 we have hoped to furnish in this series a solid and pemianent 

 basis for the study and teaching of the natural history of this 

 state and of its different sections, thus opening to the student 

 and the teacher the way to a familiar knowledge of the life 

 of his neighborhood in all the relations likely to have any im- 

 portant bearing on popular education or on the general welfare. 



"Classification and description must furnish the foundation 

 of such a work ; but to these will be added accounts of habits, 

 of life history, and of relations to nature in detail and at large, 

 as full as the state of our knowledge and the funds at our dis- 

 posal will permit." 



Although the word ecology had not become current in 

 America twenty years ago, and the idea covered by it can 

 hardly be said to have been a familiar one, it wijl be noticed 

 that the survey here characterized is essentially an ecological 

 one — a fact which has enabled us to harmonize very easily our 

 plans, and the operations in progress, with the ideals and as- 

 pirations of the young ecologists of the Illinois Academy. 



Consistently with the general idea of the study by the state, 

 within our field of ecological biology, of those subjects of 

 educational or economic importance which are not likely to 

 be pursued by others, the general topic of the food of birds, 

 fishes, and certain groups of insects was taken up, many years 

 ago, with a view to a precise knowledge of the place and ef- 

 ficiency of these groups in the general system of nature — a 

 topic of such special difficulty, and requiring so unusual a prep- 

 aration and so large an expenditure of time and money, as 

 to put it beyond the reach of the ordinary worker. The Illi- 

 nois survey was, in fact, the pioneer in this field, and its papers, 

 published in the first two volumes of the State Laboratory Bul- 

 letin, still remain standard on this subject. 



A statistical study of the birds of the state, made with a 

 view to a determination of the number of birds of each species 



