VoI i^07" IV ] Roberts, A Lapland Longspur Tragedy. 373 



A Mr. Drobeck reported that on the morning following the 

 storm he noticed lumps or balls of snow on the roof of his barn and 

 that when they thawed in the morning sun, they were found to 

 contain live birds. The heads of the birds would first appear, and 

 then, shaking off the snow, they would sit for a time in the sun 

 drying and preening themselves and then fly off. He caught 

 several and took them in the house and it was two of these birds 

 that Dr. Dart saw in his window garden a week later. This curious 

 statement was corroborated by a second observer. Evidently the 

 birds had become wet and snow-laden, and falling into the sticky 

 snow had by their efforts rolled themselves into snow-balls. 



Dr. Manson and Dr. Humiston, two physicians of Worthington, 

 gave their testimony along the same lines as above. The former 

 added that he noticed that many of the birds had entered the snow 

 head foremost as though they had pitched down head-long rather 

 than as though they had fluttered down as they probably would 

 have done after striking some obstacle. When these birds were 

 picked out of the snow it was found that the snow was stained with 

 blood that had oozed from their mouths. 



Slayton, the county seat of Murray County, situated about 

 twenty-five miles north and six miles west of Worthington, was the 

 next place investigated. It was stated by several residents of this 

 village that on March 13, after a rainy and windy afternoon, the 

 wind fell toward night to a gentle breeze from the southeast, and 

 later a heavy wet snow began falling which continued for several 

 hours, but the snow accumulated to a depth of only an inch or two. 

 The temperature was above freezing. There were no electric 

 lights here, the streets being lighted with gas. There were also 

 fewer wires. On the 23d of March, nine days after the storm, 

 Dr. Dart states that dead birds were in evidence everywhere in 

 town. Heads, wings and tails could be seen sticking out of the 

 mud everywhere in the main street and in other streets even to the 

 outskirts of the town. It was stated that on the morning of the 

 14th twenty-nine dead birds were swept off the seventy-five feet of 

 sidewalk in front of the hotel. From the roof of the latter building 

 Dr. Dart counted nineteen dead Longspurs in the eaves-trough, 

 and undoubtedly many had been washed away by the heavy rain 

 on the 20th. Scattered over the roof of an adjoining building 



