THE DUCK SICKNESS TX riTAII. 5 



remained. A few were found when the water rose in the fall, but 

 it was estimated that not more than 500 birds died during the season. 

 During 1916 practically no sick birds were found on either the 

 Jordan or Weber Rivers. On Bear River the first were noted on 

 July 3, and the trouble was at its height by August 30, with no 

 abatement until September 25. It was practically at an end before 

 October 1, though occasional sick green-winged teal and spoonbills 

 were noted until October 17. 



REPORTS FROM OTHER REGIONS. 



Around the shores of Owens Lake, Cal., Dr. A. K. Fisher, of the 

 Biological Survey, found many dead eared grebes and shovellers in 

 June, 1891. He estimated the number of dead grebes at 35,000 .* 

 Iu November, 1914, the writer found many birds of these same species, 

 with a few individuals of others, dead in this locality. Apparently 

 the cause of death was similar to that producing the duck sickness in 

 Utah. Considerable numbers of grebes and ducks come to Owens 

 Lake in the fall and remain through the winter. The greater part are 

 said to die before the end of February and are cast up along the shore. 



Sick ducks have been observed in the Tulare Lake basin for more 

 than 20 years, according to Tipton Matthews, deputy game warden of 

 Kern County. These birds were found around Goose Lake and on the 

 Widgeon Gun Club grounds at Brown's Knolls when the water supply 

 was low in summer. In 1909 sick birds appeared around Soleta Lake; 

 and in 1910 many thousand ducks died on Soleta, Goose, Buena 

 Vista, and Tulare Lakes. Sick birds were found in these areas during 

 the three years following. Frank C. Clark, a special assistant of the 

 California Fish and Game Commission, made an investigation into 

 the sickness at Tulare Lake in the fall of 1913. 2 Li 1914 Soleta and 

 Goose Lakes were dry, and no sick birds occurred on Buena Vista 

 Lake, which was filled with fresh water. Tipton Matthews and the 

 writer estimated that in this year at least 15,000 birds, the greater 

 part of which were pintails, had died on Tulare Lake. Long lines of 

 bodies had washed up along low levees on the south shore, and dead 

 birds were scattered across the drying flats or lay along the dikes 

 where they had crawled out of the water. Since 1914 few sick birds 

 have been known here. 



From the Lake Malheur region, in Oregon, a malady apparently the 

 same as the duck sickness of Great Salt Lake has been reported, and 

 in 1916 and 1917 sick ducks were reported from Baca Lake, 35 miles 

 south of Malheur Lake. 



An outbreak that occurred at Lake Bowdoin, near Malta. Mont., 

 in August and September, 1915, killed large numbers of shorebirds 



i North American Fauna No. 7, pp. 12-13, 1S93. * Cf. Condor, XV, pp. 214-226, 1913. 



