F 
eet ek oe tent all 
A le Di 
BIENNIAL REPORT 
OF THE 
ILLINOIS STATE LABORATORY 
OF 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
To the Trustees of the University of Illinois: — 
The work of the State Laboratory of Natural History has 
been during the past two years mainly a continuation of the 
Natural History Survey of the State required of it by law. 
Its field operations have been conducted mainly from the 
Iihnois Biological Station as a center, and have been limited 
to the aquatic zodlogy and botany of the State. 
STUDY OF ILLINOIS FISHES. 
A systematic study of Illinois fishes was resumed last 
year, and has since been carried on as the principal interest 
of the Survey, and by methods in some respects new. This 
work is directed towards the conclusion of an elaborate re- 
port upon the fishes of Illinois which I have for some years 
had in hand, and a considerable part of the manuscript for 
which is already prepared. 
Mr. Wallace Craig occupied the Biological Station at 
Havana as Ichthyological Assistant for eight months—from 
August 18, 1898, to April 27, 1899. It was his task to study 
the species of fish occurring in the Station field, their relative 
abundance, their distribution, migrations and other move- 
ments, their times and places of breeding, their feeding habits 
and food preferences, and the relations of these tacts to the 
conditions of their life in the various waters studied. So far 
as possible, additional information was also collected as to 
(3) 
