THE DUCK SICKNESS IN UTAH. 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. x 
In 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 In 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, 1893. 2 cf. Condor, XV, pp. 214-226, 1913. 
