510 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



and plump, in no case emaciated. Moreover, if their dying were 

 due to starvation or disease of any kind, it is improbable so many 

 would have died at approximately the same time. 



No reasonable explanation of this very unusual phenomenon 

 has as yet been suggested, and it must, for the present at least, re- 

 main an unsolved mystery. 



33. GREATER SNOW GOOSE 



CHEN HYPERBOREUS NIVALIS (J. R. Forster) 



This goose appears quite rare at Lake Maxinkuckee. The only 

 record we have is of 10 to 20 seen by Mr. S. S. Chadwick, Novem- 

 ber 6, 1902, They were mixed in with a large lot of Canada Geese 

 which he estimated at 1,200 to 2,000 birds. They were on the lake 

 all day but all left that night. 



34. CANADA GOOSE; WILD GOOSE; HONKER 



BRANTA CANADENSIS (Linnaeus) 



Twenty to forty years ago Wild Geese were very abundant in 

 Indiana during the spring and fall migrations. For several days 

 in the spring, hundreds of flocks representing thousands of birds 

 could be seen wending their way northward. The first flocks were 

 usually seen during the "February thaw", with an occasional one 

 in January, but the great flight came in March and early April. 

 In the fall the flights were even greater. They usually began late 

 in October and continued toward the last of November, with an oc- 

 casional belated flock in December. Although the flights now are 

 as nothing compared with those of two or three decades ago, the 

 number of geese seen by us at Lake Maxinkuckee was surprisingly 

 large. Because of the popular intei-est in this fine bird, we give 

 our records with considerable detail. 



In the spring of 1899, the Wild Geese were first noted on March 

 first and several flocks were observed during March and April. In 

 1901, a flock was reported January 22. Others were noted March 

 3, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28 and 29 and on April 1, 4, 

 6, 7, 8, 11, 14, and 25. A good many were seen March 3; two 

 flocks were noted on the 10th ; on the 12th several flocks, one of 

 them quite noisy, and some of them resting on the ice which still 

 covered the lake; a flock reported on 13th and another on the loth 

 flying southwest and honking; on the 16th a flock alighted in the 

 lake, on the 17th a large flock was seen flying northwest, and on 

 the 22d a large noisy flock stopped on the lake but soon left, going 



