6o2 'DUCK SHOOTING. 



or less of this shot. When the shot has passed into the 

 gizzard it is subjected to the same grinding process as 

 the grass, grain or other food, and, being softer than 

 the sand, it is ground into minute particles. These fine 

 particles, acted on by the acids of the digestive organs, 

 yield a soluble lead salt, which, being absorbed into the 

 general system, causes death.* 



In a subsequent note to Forest and Stream, signed by 

 A Member of the Narrows Island Club, additional 

 facts bearing on the subject were printed, as follows : 



"At Narrows Island the goose pen stands on the bor- 

 der of a channel known as the Little Narrows, which, 

 in times of severe cold weather, is always open, and 

 during a freeze-up is a great flyway for ducks. Gun- 

 ners shooting about this channel at such times have for 

 many years scattered shot over the marsh, the water 

 and the mud. 



"Until a year or two since, the goose pen stood partly 

 on the marsh and partly over the muddy shore, and en- 

 closed no high land. The live decoy geese and ducks, 

 being unable to supply themselves with sand or gravel, 

 were industrious in searching through the mud for the 

 hard particles necessary to the proper digestion of their 

 food, and until recently we were constantly troubled 

 by having our decoy geese and ducks sick with the 

 'croup.' However, after the death of Capt. Ryder, our 

 former superintendent, we moved and enlarged the 

 goose pen, so that it now takes in a piece of high 

 ground, where there is some sand, with plenty of bro- 



*The London Field (1902) gives instances of similar lead pois- 

 oning, in England, of pheasants and partridges. 



