442 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



aud put well-water upon them, and death also follows. There is too 

 suddeu a change of temperature. Apply this experiment in the white- 

 fish case, and you have the reason of their death. (From Wisconsin 

 State Journal, August 5, 1884.) 



The birds dying also. — About ten days ago the swallows and 

 sparrows began to die at the State Insane Hospital, and day by day 

 many of the innocent creatures have fluttered helpless to the ground 

 and soon become dead. Great numbers of the birds abound around the 

 hospital, and the sudden aud numerous deaths, not only in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of the hospital, but throughout the entire farm, 

 have occasioned genuine surprise. The birds will suddenly drop to the 

 ground while flying through the air overhead, in places entirely remote 

 from telegraph wires, trees, or other obstructions against which it is 

 possible to injure themselves, and die without a flutter or any indi- 

 cation of pain. The doctors and attendants at the hospital have repeat- 

 edly thrown the birds into the air again, in the hope that tbey would be 

 able to resume their flight, but in every instance they have fallen back 

 to the earth again, to die. Governor Rusk has observed a few of the 

 dead b;rds around his home, and others residing on the shores of Lake 

 jMendota have noticed the same phenomenon. 



Superintendent Buckmaster,of the State Insane Hospital, has atheory 

 in regard to the cause of their deaths. He says that myriads of flies 

 swarm upon the putrefying bodies of the dead perch upon the shores of 

 Lake Mendota, where they feast, and that these flies are eaten in great 

 quantities by the birds, which would indicate that the death of the lat- 

 ter is attributable to the same cause as that of the former. If the birds 

 really do die from eating the flies, then the superintendent states that 

 he believes the fish, upon which the flies feed, are troubled with blood- 

 ])oisoniug. The mystery of the fish mortality certainly deepens, and is 

 greatly intensified by the fatality which has so recently stricken the 

 birds. 



In this connection it may be well to say that a little boy residing in 

 this city drove off the railway bridge into Lake Menona, a few days ago, 

 and was stung so severely in one of his eyes by some animal beneath 

 the surface of the water that he has been unable to use it in any way 

 since. When he sustained the injury he saw no object, and feels confi- 

 dent that it must have been done by some insect or worm very small in 

 size. (From Wisconsin State Journal, August C, 1884.) 



Two HUNDRED TONS HAULED AWAY. — The mortality of perch and 

 other fish in Lake Mendota, Wisconsin, continues, and scientific men 

 froui various parts of the country have been called to investigate the 

 matter. Thus far 200 tons of dead fish have been hauled away from the 

 shores of the lake by the city authorities. The worst mortality prevails 

 when the lake is very still or gently stirred by a south wind. On a rough 

 estimate 3,000,000 fish have died in the lake, and their bodies have 

 drifted to the shore. Perch are the only fish dying whose death can.not 



