6 BULLETIN 793, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
During prolonged cases of lead poisoning, the alimentary tract 
exhibited several changes that were characteristic of the trouble. In 
normal birds the ventriculus, or gizzard, and the crop may be 
crammed with food, but the proventriculus, or glandular portion of 
the stomach, is empty. In cases of lead poisoning from eating shot 
the appetite for food is greatly increased, while the gizzard seems 
slow in action, and observations indicate that the great muscles in 
its walls are more or less jDaralyzed. In these birds the proven- 
triculus and the lower portion of the oesophagus are greatly dis- 
tended with food, so that they form a mass larger than the gizzard 
itself and have their walls stretched to the utmost. (PI. II, fig. 1.) 
The pads lining the inside of the gizzard often appear more or less 
corroded and slough easily, while gravel may work up into the lower 
portion of the proventriculus, a condition that is unknown in the 
healthy animal. The contents of the gizzard were usually stained 
green. Occasionally this color extended through the food contained 
in the lower part of the proventriculus. 
Generally the shot were found on washing out the matter con- 
tained in the gizzard, though a few were located in the lower end 
of the proventriculus. The usual number of shot in one stomach 
was 15 to 40. The largest number of pellets taken from one bird was 
76, found in the gizzard of a mallard secured near the mouth of the 
Bear Eiver, Utah. In September, 1916, during routine laboratory 
work, 28 mallards and 10 pintails that had died from lead poisoning 
were examined." From the stomachs of these 38 birds 939 shot were 
recovered, an average of a fraction less than 25 each. Where shot 
have been in the gizzard for a considerable time they are much 
worn, and in many cases are ground down to flattened disks by the 
action of the stomach muscles and the trituration with gravel. 
The intestine may be irritated, or may be nearly free from dis- 
tended capillaries. Observations on this point are uncertain, as the 
birds examined were from regions where the waters frequented con- 
tain irritant salts, usually in quantities sufficient to bring about a 
certain amount of congestion in the capillaries of the intestinal walls 
of the waterfowl. Where many shot are in the stomach the walls 
of the small intestine may be discolored, and in nearly every case 
there is a deposit of lead on the inner walls of the caeca. This de- 
posit is most pronounced in the distal third of these blind guts, but 
may extend for their entire length. The caecum appears lead colored 
from without, but when slit and examined its inner walls are found 
to be blackish. The gall bladder is always full and may be much 
distended. In one individual examined the gall bladder measured 
30 mm. long by 12 mm. in diameter. The bile is very dark green, 
and after death this color may spread slowly until it has stained the 
