472 General Notes. [g^J 



A Note on the Audubon Shearwater. — On July 30 and 31, a severe 

 hurricane passed the North Carohna coast, with high southeast to south- 

 west winds. While the writer was collecting on Fort Macon Beach, near 

 Beaufort, N. C, August 1, he found two specimens of the Audubon Shear- 

 water {Puffimis Iherminieri). One, which was dead, had been dragged 

 by a sand-crab (Ocypoda albicans) to the mouth of its burrow, where the 

 crab had commenced to feed on the carcass. The other shearwater was 

 found at the distance of half a mile from the first. Although this second 

 one was alive, it made no resistance to capture; it seemed to be exhausted. 

 The writer carried the bird to the Marine Laboratory of U. S. Fisheries, 

 where it died in spite of attempts to revive it. Both specimens were 

 full grown and measured twelve inches in length. — Bartgis McGlone, 

 Annapolis, Md. 



'Lead Poisoning in Ducks.' — Conditions similar to those described by 

 Mr. J. H. Bowles for the Misqually Flats, Puget Sound, exist at Lake 

 Surprise, Texas. To the latter locality, Canvasbacks resort from Novem- 

 ber to March. About the first of January, each year, many of these ducks 

 are found among the rushes along the shore in various stages of sickness. 

 Some can dive, but cannot fly, and all become emaciated. A part of these, 

 of course, are cripples, but most of them, although free from wounds, are 

 plainly diseased, and according to the belief of those who have had most 

 experience with them, the cause is lead poison from shot in the gizzards. 

 No fewer than forty shot have been taken from a single gizzard and the 

 shot generally bear evidence of more or less attrition. As the season 

 advances, the diseased ducks gradually disappear; the greater part die, 

 but some, it is thought, recover. According to the information at hand, 

 no other species than the Canvasback, is thus affected at Lake Surprise. 



Ducks secure a great deal of their food by sifting mud through their 

 bills; if shot are abundant in the mud, it is not hard to understand how the 

 birds may collect a considerable number in a day. Resisting digestion 

 to a marked degree, as shot do, the quantity in the gizzard is added to day 

 by day, the ducks continuing to feed over the same grounds, until finally, 

 the gizzard is clogged with shot, and malnutrition, if not actual poisoning, 

 ensues. Epidemics such as we now have evidence of on Puget Sound and 

 at Lake Surprise, in all probability will- increase in number, adding another 

 to the almost overwhelming array of unfavorable concUtions, against 

 which our ducks must more and more hopelessly struggle. — W. L. McAtee, 

 Washington, D. C. 



Masked Duck {Nomonyx dominicus) in Chatham County, Georgia. — 

 By permission of Mr. G. R. Rossignol, Jr., of Savannah, I take pleasure in 

 making a note of the capture of a young male Masked Duck {Nomonyx 

 dominicus) near Wilmington Island in Chatham County on October 5, 

 1906. It was taken by a young hunter and turned over to Mr. Rossignol 

 and is now in his collection. — Isaac F. Arnow, St. Marys, Ga. 



