CALIFORNIA PISH AND GAME. 



191 



lost. The sportsmen of the country should 

 feel highly pleased over their victory, for 

 surely the law is valid or the organized 

 fight against it would have met with at 

 least some slight success. 



On June 4, 1919 United States Dis- 

 trict Judge Jacob Trieber, of the Eastern 

 District of Arkansas, who held that the 

 original migratory bird law of 1913 was 

 unconstitutional, handed down a very 

 sweeping decision upholding the new law. 

 This was the first jolt received by the 

 spring shooters, but the knockout blow 

 came later at Kansas City, Missouri, 

 when Judge Arba S. Van Valkenburgh, 

 on July 2, 1919, upheld the law in a de- 

 c'sion so sweeping that a fitting com- 

 parison is Dempsey's decision over Wil- 

 lard a few days later. — Bull. American 

 Game Protective Association. 



WATERFOWL DIE FROM EATING 

 SHOT. 



Wild ducks and other waterfowl some- 

 times die from lead poisoning resulting 

 from swallowing stray shot which they 

 pick out of the mud about shooting 

 grounds. Many ducks that become sick 

 from lead poisoning finally recover, but 

 it is probable that the effect is perma- 

 nently injurious not only to the individual 

 but to the species. It has been ascer- 

 tained by expei'iment that lead greatly 

 impairs the virility of male domestic 

 fowls. Females mated with them lay 

 many infertile egs, while in many of the 

 eggs that are fertilized the embryo dies 

 in the shell or the chick emerges weak 

 and unable to withstand the hardships of 

 early life. What effect lead poisoning 

 has on female wild fowl has not been 

 definitely ascertained, but, as the fact is 

 well known that lead produces abortion 

 in female mammals, there is a possibility 

 that it exerts a bad effect on female 

 waterfowl during the breeding season. 

 Thus, the supply of waterfowl is likely 

 to be decreased b.v lead poisoning not 

 only by the number of birds that die 

 directly from it but indirectly by impair- 

 ment of reproduction. 



These facts are set forth by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture in Bul- 

 letin 793, "Lead Poisoning in Water- 

 fowl," about to be published as a con- 

 tribution from the Bureau of Biological 

 Survey. Reports of watei'fowl apparently 

 sick from lead poisoning have been coming 



in for several years. The Biological Sur- 

 vey undertook an investigation at various 

 shooting grounds to determine how com- 

 mon the taking of shot by waterfowl is, 

 and a series of experiments to ascertain 

 the effect of shot swallowed. It was 

 found that at places where much shooting 

 is regularly done from blinds, shot at the 

 bottom of the shallow water are so 

 numerous that one or more was found in 

 practically every sieveful of mud or silt, 

 and that they are swallowed by waterfowl 

 whenever found as a result of this habit 

 of swallowing small, hard objects to 

 supply grit for the gizzard. 



The experiments have shown that shot 

 swallowed are gradually ground away in 

 the gizzard and pass into the intestines, 

 producing a poisoning that results in pro- 

 gressive paralysis and, usually, death. 

 Experiments with wild waterfowl cap- 

 tured when young and reared in cap- 

 tivity — to obviate the possibility of their 

 having taken lead before the beginning 

 of the experiments — have shown that six 

 pellets of No. 6 shot constitute an amount 

 of lead that is always fatal. Two or 

 three shot were sufficient to cause death 

 in several instances. In one experiment, 

 two mallards were given one No. 6 shot 

 each. One of them died in nine days and 

 the other was able to throw off the poison. 



The list of species known to have been 

 poisoned by eating shot consists of mal- 

 lard, pintail and canvas-back ducks, the 

 whistling swan, and the marbled godwit, 

 but many other species, particularly of 

 ducks and geese, are undoubtedly affected 

 by it, according to the bulletin. 



Unfortunately, nothing can be done at 

 this time to protect waterfowl from lead 

 poisoning except to call attention to the 

 malady and to make known its cause and 

 symptoms. The department, however, de- 

 sires statistics on the numbers and species 

 of birds affected and asKs that sportsmen 

 and others report to the Bureau of Bio- 

 logical Survey all cases that come to their 

 attention. 



GOVERNMENT NEEDS DEPUTY 

 CHIEF GAME WARDEN. 



The United States Department of Agri- 

 culture is in need of a -well-qualified man, 

 not less than twenty-five nor more thaa 

 forty-five years of age, to fill a vacancy 

 in the position of deputy chief United 

 States game warden, and the United 



