LEAD POISONING IN WILD WATERFOWL 
James S. Jordan and Frank C. Bellrose 
Illinois Natural History Survey 
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For more than Nali a century, sportsmen and conSéervationists Nave deen 
aa sm . s the usid watortoau) of North ass Srannoatont ohcarmnnc haywe mada ecountc 
from lead poisoning among the wild wateriow! of North America. Competent observers have made counts 
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of the numbers of birds involved in some of the sporadic, local die-offs, but little information has been 
available for making even rough estimates of the over-2il continental los 
For several years, biologists with the Dlinois Natural History 
have occurred among migratory waterfowl with 
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poisoning die-offs tha 
December or January. A spectacular die-off of mallard ducks near Grafton in January, 194 
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of officials of the Western 
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Cartridge Company of Fast Alton. As an outgrowth of the situation, a co-operative investigation cf lead 
poisoning in waterfowl was begun in July, 1948, by the [linois 
