The Washington times., 1912-04-17
MIGRATING BIRDS
FROM NORTH REAL
GOLD DISCOVERIES
Nuggets Found In Crops of
Wild Ducks and Geese
BY Hunters.

In the Dominion Museum at ottawa,
Canada, are specimens of precious
stones and nuggets which were found
in the gizzards of Alaskan birds. Hunt
ers all over the world are familiar with
the fact that some birds, especially
migrants. pick up occasionally on their
travels valuables of many kinds.
Ducks and geese especially are prone
to gather gold nuggets and carry them
down out of the north. to spread them
before the hunters who shoot them.
! The surface gold bearing sands the
world over are forever yielding a small
toll to birds.
Long before gold was found in Alas
ka the Pacific coast gunners knew that
there was placer gold in the north, be-
cause every year geese and ducks were
killed In whose crops we're found, mug
gets of gold. Even domestic birds in
California to this day reveal the pres
ence of gold in their scratching beds,
as yas done by geese on a farm near
Sa9a Barbara, Cal. A number of
small nuggets were found in the crops
Of slaughtered birds and investigation
showed that there was little gold in
the yard where the birds had been
kept.
Wild birds in the extreme part of
South America find on the beaches
there nuggets of gold which they yield
to the hunters of the Patagonian coun-
try.
Occasionally there is a gem discov-
cred in the crop of a wild bird. Thus
the wild geese which fed on the mussels
of the Mississippi. Wabash, st. Fran
els, Tennessee, and other pearl streams
ate pearls with their mussels, but the
hunters never found a valuable pearl in
their crops; the slugs-baroques-how
ever, were common enough to find
place in hunter talk in the Mississippi
In the Choptank river, above Cam
bridge, Md. an oyster tonger brought
up bit Of oyster rock which excited
was a round, cobblelke chunk Of cal
cium precipitate. He shucked off the
oysters and then broke the chunk with
a hammer. He found in the chunk a
Spanish piece Of eight, and ever since
ure he suspects lies under the water
there.
In 1908. near New Smyrna, Fla, a
large crab was caught by fisherman.
sea bottom and thus brought up a
corroded coin. which proved to be a
Spanish doubloon of the mintage of
1905 Search revealed wreckage on the
bottom there. but attempts to recover
more treasure met with failure.
Chickens are excellent discoverers of
diamonds loosened from their settings.
Chickens wander over gardens and
lawns and pick up grit for their crops.
with the result that many precious
stone is recovered after being lost; ap-
pArently beyond hope. They even find
whole strings of gems. An industrious
! hen scratching under a Lakewood. N.
j., porch in 1909 picked up shiny peb-
BILE, but couldn't swallow 1t because
Of a fine gold chain fast to 1t. While
the hen was worrying ABOUT, swallow,
ing the find a neighbor saw the gleam
and sparkle and Investigated. The hen
had found a necklace for which a re-
ward had been offered three months be-
fore.
) Miss Sophie Alexander, Of Newburgh,
| N. Y, lost a diamond from a ring and
gave up hope Of finding 1t. Last year
q pet pigeon died and Miss Alexander
had 1t mounted. In the birds crop was
the missing gem.