POISONING BY LEAD SHOT. 149 



"^I understand last year some score of pheasants died 

 in the same preserve, all of them showing symptoms same 

 as above related. Both years the poisoning happened after 

 the coverts had been shot through. No doubt the birds 

 pick up the pellets under the delusion of being either food 

 or grains of sand ; perhaps the latter. When the birds died 

 last year the cause of death was attributed to there being 

 too many left for breeding purposes; rather a strange reason, 

 seeing that the birds had been decimated on the shooting day. 



'' Others may have experienced something similar to the 

 above, without being able to give a satisfactory reason for 

 the birds dying; but where you have paralysed limbs and 

 a gradual falling off in condition, and should this happen 

 some weeks after the covert has been shot through, then you 

 may suspect that lead-poisoning is a probable cause.^' 



