2 BULLETIN 793, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
the following pages. During the course of the work the Bureau of 
Chemistry has cooperated in making analyses to determine the 
presence of lead in portions of the viscera of affected birds. 
HISTORY. 
At various times during past years there has been discussion in 
sporting magazines regarding the presence of shot in the stomachs of 
wild ducks. More recently attention was called to lead poisoning 
in ducks by J. H. Bowles 1 in 1908. On the Xisqually Flats, a large 
marsh area in the Puget Sound district, Washington, a number of 
mallards had been found sick or dead. Examination of three of these 
revealed a quantity of shot still held in the gizzard. The Xisqually 
Flats have been famous ducking grounds since early settlement in the 
State, so that it may be supposed that shot are present in the mud in 
abundance. 
Lead poisoning was reported in 1908, also, among canvas-back 
ducks on Lake Surprise, Tex., and an account of it was published by 
W. L. McAtee, of the Biological Survey. 2 Lead poisoning in this 
locality apparently had been, known for several years. It was stated 
that canvas-backs resorted to Lake Surprise in Xovember each year, 
and affected birds appeared in the rushes along shore about the first 
of January, while as the season advanced these sick birds died and 
disappeared. From all accounts, no other species of ducks were 
affected here. 
Examination of several whistling swans from Back Bay, Ya., 
sent to the Biological Survey during January, 1915, showed that 
these birds were suffering from lead poisoning, as from 22 to 45 shot 
pellets were found in the gizzard of each. On inquiry it was learned 
that sick swans were found in January every year, and that the 
trouble among them continued until March. The malady, known 
locally as the " keuk," was said to affect canvas-backs and other ducks 
and geese as well as swans. 
During the summers of 1915 and 1916, while working in the 
marshes formed in the Bear River Delta at the northern end of Great 
Salt Lake, Utah, the writer handled many ducks suffering from lead 
poisoning. Here the species affected were mallards and pintails, the 
majority being males. Birds sick from poisoning were found from 
June to September, and the total number that died was considerable, 
though insignificant when compared with the numbers destroyed 
here by other diseases. 
Reports of sick ducks in other localities in the United States seem 
to indicate lead poisoning as the causative agent, but material has 
not as yet been available to substantiate this. It is believed that the 
trouble is more or less prevalent throughout the country. 
i Auk, XXV, pp. 312-313, 1908. 2 Idem, p. 472, 1908. 
