62 



several weeks. The work here reported was limited to the waters 

 visited by the field parties of the Cc>mmissioii, whose operations 

 were confined to the neighborhood of Quinoy, Illinois. 



A second contribution, not yet ready for the press, will contain 

 an account of the crustacean inhabitants of the waters studied, 

 and a description of the food, feeding habits, and mutual inter- 

 actions of the forms of animal life observed, as far as these 

 may be determined by a study-" of the objects actually eateu by 

 the specimens contained in our collections. Numerous illustra- 

 tions of the most important elements of the food of fishes, and 

 of the more interesting and remaikable animals occurring in our 

 waters, will be given with the later installments of these reports. 



Fuller accounts of these researches, with technical details, will 

 be published from time to time, as heretofore, in the Bulletin of 

 the State Laboratory of Natural History. 



It is hoped also that botanical assistance may hereafter be had 

 sufficient to enable us to include in future reports an account of 

 the plant life of these waters, — iudisponsable to a full understand- 

 ing of the biological relationships of the animals treated. 



S. A. Forbes, 

 Director of Lahoraiorjj. 



Preliminary Kepokt on the Animals of the Mississippi Bot^ 



TOMS NEAR QuiNCY, ILLINOIS, IN AUGUST, 1888. PaRT I. 



By H. Garman, Zoological Assistant. 



THE LOCALITY. 



The peculiar features of the waters examined while with the 

 Fish Commission at Quincy are reflected in the character of the 

 collections taken from them. The locality is not one which would 

 be selected by the naturalist as likely to yield a great variety of 

 species. The waters are too much alike and are too much at the 

 mercy of the Mississippi River for that. It is a locality, however, 

 that is eminently characteristic of tliP Mississippi Valle}-, and one 

 that is calculated to yield a fauna equally characteristic of certain 

 influences which the great stream exerts upon its denizens. 



The flood-ground of the Mississippi River at Quincy will averas'e 

 six miles in width from blufl' to bluff and extends very nearly 

 north and south. The river reaches the bluff on the Missouri side 

 at the village of LaGrange, nine miles northwest of Quincy. From 

 LaGrange it flows southeast in a direct course to the bluffs upon 

 which Quincy stands. As this part of the river is but little more 

 than a mile in width, it will be seen that extensive bottom-lands 

 must lie on both sides of it between LaGrange and Quincy. On 

 the Missouri side these bottoms form an extended and continuous 

 body of land, — all wooded except the upper part, which is known 

 as Lone Tree Prairie. 



