1 8 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON AN ECOLOGICAL 



SURVEY. 



The committee of the Academy on an ecological survey 

 consists of all the members of the Academy known to us as 

 active workers on ecological problems within our area. They 

 are not numerous enough nor widely enough distributed to 

 cover the entire state with a well-coordinated scheme of sys- 

 tematic investigation, but they are nevertheless obtaining im- 

 portant results in their several districts, all contributory to 

 the general end. The districts which have been actively in- 

 vestigated are the Chicago Area ; the Beach Area of north- 

 eastern Illinois; the counties of Jo Davies in the northwestern 

 part and Fulton in the central part of the state ; the Sand 

 Prairies of the state , the Charleston Area, with extensions 

 over eastern Illinois; and the Illinois River, with extensions 

 to the Mississippi and the Ohio. A statistical survey of the 

 bird life of the entire state, made four years ago, showing 

 the numbers, distribution, and ecological relations of the 

 species, is now being worked up for final publication. 



The ecological relations of the crawfishes of Illinois have 

 been studied and reported on by Miss N. M. Rietz, working 

 under the direction of Dr. Adams, of the University of Illinois, 

 in a paper based on an examination of about 2.000 specimens 

 1.600 of them from the collection of the State Laboratory of 

 Natural History. The distribution and ecological relations of 

 our crawfishes are given for each of the ten species found in 

 the state, and the paper is illustrated by maps showing the 

 Illinois distribution, and photographs of specimens atid of 

 characteristic habitats. 



An important undertaking, not regional in character, is 

 that of a general publication on ecological methods, with full 

 lists of available papers especially helpful to the ecological 

 worker. This work of Dr. Adams is now ready for publica- 

 tion. 



Special features of the ecology of the Chicago Area have 

 been actively investigated by Dr. H. S. Pepoon, of the Lake 

 View High School ; by Mr. Frank C. Baker, of the Chicago 

 Academy of Sciences ; and by Dr. V. E. Shelford, of the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago, assisted especially by Dr. W. C. Allee, 

 Mn G. D. Allen, and Miss Katherine Norcross. The vegeta- 

 tion of the beach area of northeastern Illinois has been studied 

 by Mr. F. C. Gates, of the Lhiiversity of Illinois Cnow of the 

 University of Michigan), and the results of his work have 

 been published as a bulletin of the State Laboratory of 

 Natural History. An associational study of the Illinois sand 

 prairies, has been made by Mr. A. G. Vestal, under the direc- 



