GUIDE TO THE STUDY
OF
ANIMAL ECOLOGY
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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Fig. 1.—Oyster Bank in South Carolina. Showing colonies of “coon” oysters growing in area between tides.Consult Möbius, Dean, and Grave for the ecological conditions of the animals on oyster banks. This is arepresentative animal community. Photo. by B. Dean, loaned by U. S. Bureau of Fisheries.
GUIDE TO THE STUDY
OF
ANIMAL ECOLOGY
BY
CHARLES C. ADAMS, Ph.D.
ASSOCIATE IN ANIMAL ECOLOGY, DEPARTMENT OF ZOÖLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1913
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1913,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published August, 1913.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
[Pg v]
PREFACE
During the past ten years the writer has been tryingto find some consistent and satisfactory workingplan for handling the almost bewildering number offacts, of ecological significance, which have been accumulatingin the literature of zoölogy, biology, andthe allied sciences. This book is the outgrowth ofthe effort as it has developed in the study and teachingof animal ecology. I have not attempted tomake this an exhaustive treatment of the subject,but rather to indicate briefly some of its generalbearings and a method of approach. I have triedto keep in mind the needs of the beginner in ecology.
An ecological point of view is described more fullythan the other subjects discussed, so that the studentmay see the need of familiarity with those testsor criteria by means of which he may be able todetermine for himself ecological relations and thevalidity of ecological studies. The other phases aretreated less fully in the discussions and with moredetail bibliographically so that this may be a usefulsource book. The geographical (in the ordinarysense of the word) aspect has been deliberatelyomitted. The references should be looked uponfrom the standpoint presented in the general portionsof this book, and if the facts and inferencesaid in the interpretation of the relations which exist[Pg vi]between a