608 Eepokt of State Geologist. 



short distance below tke mouth of the Wabash Eiver. The only report 

 of their wintering farther north than Shawneetown was from Mr. W. 

 B. Hull, Milwaukee, Wis. Mr. HiUl says: "For about a week the 

 whole bay was frozen over with ice from two to fourteen inches thick. 

 During this time the pot-hunter butchered numbers of Pintail Ducks. 

 The ducks were half starved, and would allow a man to approach 

 within 20 feet of them. Icemen were cutting ice close to the shore, 

 and ducks came right among them to get to the open water. A friend 

 who was on the ship Oneida during her 25 days in the ice, said that 

 the ducks (Pintails mostly, but a few "northern" ducks he did not rec- 

 ognize) were "frozen in." When walking on the ice near the boat, he 



Head of Female Pintail. 



saw hundreds of ducks in a solid casing of ice. In the winter of 

 1873-74 they were killed in the same way. (Cooke, Bird Migration in 

 Mississippi "Valley, pp. 68, 69.) 



These are, with the Mallards and Eing-necks, the earliest river 

 ducks to move northward. They begin to migrate the first open 

 weather. This may occur any time from the middle of February to 

 the middle of March. The following dates will give the records of the 

 first reports for the State for the years mentioned: 



1885. Mar. 13.— Brookville. 



1886. Feb. 26. — Bloomington (Everraann). 

 ,gg(l I Feb. 15. — Frankfort (Gliere). 



i Feb 20.— Viiicennes (Balmer). Ducks by thousands— first bird wave. 

 1891. Feb. 14.— English Lake (Deane). 

 igq9 /Feb. 6. — Liverpool (Parker). 



•■Feb. 27.— English Lake (Deane). 



1894. Mar; 11.— English Lake (Deane). 



1895. Mar. 15. — Liverpool (Parkeri. 

 1896 ^ ^^^' 'i- —Liverpool (Parker). 



' Mar. 4. — Brookville. 



