The Ecology of the Skokie Marsh Area, With Special Reference to the Mollusca

The present paper is an attempt to place on record a minute study of a small area with special reference to its molluscan inhabitants. It is believed that this is one of the first attempts to apply the ecological method, so notably used by the botanists (Cowles, 1901; Jennings, 1909, etc.), to the study of the Mollusca, althoughAdams (1906) and Ruthven (1904) have included this class of animals in their report of the Ecological Survey of Michigan, and Pilsbry (1905), Elrod (1901-03) and Adams (1900) have made valuable contributions to molluscan ecology. Attempts to study the mollusks of a restricted region from an ecological standpoint are, however, rare, the writer having been unable to find any papers in which these animals were studied purely from this standpoint.