Madagascan pochard of numerous fish species in the lake that killed most of the pochard chicks and damaged nesting sites. Adult birds are also likely to have become victims of introduced fishes. Rice cultivation, cattle grazing on the shores, burning of shore vegetation, introduced mammals (rats), gill-net fishing and hunting are all factors that led to the duck's disappearance from the lake. The last record of multiple birds at Lake Alaotra is from 9 June 1960 when a small flock of about 20 birds was spotted on the lake. Despite the rarity of the species in 1960, a male was shot, and
What a queer bird in Chicago", with the work allegedly first printed in the "Bulletin of the Chicago Board of Education". The "Chicago Ledger" printed the work its "Jokes and More Jokes" section in May 1922, where the word "wonderful" replaced "queer". In July 1922, it appeared as a verse of imprecise origin in the "American Consular Bulletin". When printed in the "Pleasantries" section of "The Christian Register" in September 1922, it was attributed as a "[c]omposition by foreigner in a Chicago night school." By 1980, it was published as a folk song to be sung as a round. What a queer bird "What