THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 49 
arrive from the north throughout November, until the cold in the north 
has forced the last of the migrants from frozen shores. 
Horseshoe Lake, in Alexander County in Southern I[Jlinois, is a State 
Game Refuge, probably the most important in our state or in the midwest, 
for thousands of Canada Geese spend the winter feeding upon the five 
hundred acres of wheat which have been placed there for their special 
benefit. They have approximately twenty-five hundred acres of land, an 
island surrounded by the oxbow lake—an old river bend—on which to 
feed and rest without molestation, and so we find this great host of wild 
fowl wintering in the State, instead of moving southward to a warmer 
region. 
Where there is such a concentration of geese, it is natural that there 
should be many hunters during the open season, and consequently many 
geese are killed, and the land owners in the near vicinity receive consider- 
able revenue from granting hunting privileges. 
It is unfortunate that the state does not possess land bordering the 
lake, for under present conditions, it is possible for hunters to shoot to 
the water’s edge, and if it were not for the fact that wild geese learn by 
experience and are extremely worldly wise, they would long since have tread 
the path of the Great Auk and the Passenger Pigeon. But geese have learned 
not to depend on man; they watch out for themselves, so when they leave 
the water, they rise high in the air before starting their flight to their 
feeding grounds. Consequently, very few birds are killed in pass shoot- 
ing. The majority are killed at shooting pits where the birds are attracted 
ty feod and live decoys. 
This past season Mr. E. G. Wright and I accompanied Dr. H. H. 
Ress, entomologist of the Illinois Natural History Survey, to the Sanctuary 
that we might make a bit of motion film of the wintering geese for the 
Survey, as desired by Dr. T. H. Frison. We made our headquarters in 
the commodious dwelling place on the island through the kindness of Mr. 
and Mrs. Luther Bourland, who are in charge of the Sanctuary. There 
are two major attractions on the island—the thousands of geese feeding 
unmolested in the wheat field, where they are jealously guarded by Mr. 
Bourland, and the table presided over by Mrs. Bourland. A person would 
be justified in traveling a long way with such a combination at the jour- 
ney’s end. 
We found the feeding geese very tame; they would allow us to drive 
within one hundred yards of them. When the car was stopped, however, 
they slowly ambled away, heads up, a few of them honking derisively. 
Once as we watched a band, a Bald Eagle flew low across the field, and 
the geese flew up with alarmed cries; the eagle paid no attention to them, 
merely swooping and disappearing among the cypresses. 
We were at the Sanctuary one Saturday morning during the open 
season, so at time for sunrise, we hiked to the southern end of the island 
where the majority of the birds were resting in the water. A light snow 
