The Strange Death of the Whistling Swans

This may sound like an M. R. James story, but it is real and quite creepy.

Spokane Daily Chronicle
15 February 1946
Nanimo, B. C., (CP) -

A strange illness has killed almost an entire flock of whistling swans near this Vancouver island city and the few survivors are close to death, Game Warden Frank Greenfield reported yesterday.

Greenfield said he stumbled across the tragedy yesterday while traveling through Ruggles swamp north of Nanaimo.

Ranged like a “council of death” sat the feathered skeletons of a dozen birds and, as the warden watched, two dying birds flapped and crawled into the council and joined the silent ranks, he said.

Near by were other sick birds, all with wings and legs paralyzed. Upon the swamp waters drifted more birds, too paralyzed and exhausted to reach dry land with the rest.

These whistling swans average from 18 to 24 pounds in health. Not a bird found yesterday weighed more than six pounds. One survivor was brought here by the warden and forwarded to provincial laboratories for examination.

The flock should ordinarily have flown south on annual migration at the end of November but, victim of the paralysis, was unable to leave.

Follow up details in:

The Calgary Herald
15 February 1946
Strange Illness Killing Swans
Nainaimo, BC (CP) -

{repeat of the above story, then following with}

The disease is probably either lead poisoning or botulism, known as western duck sickness, a federal government official said.

Dr. F. H. Lewis, superintendent of wild life protection in the mines and resources department, said it was impossible however to diagnose the ailment without exam