1913 FOR DUCKS IX NORTHERN ONTARIO. 5 



and thus makes it possible for a number of them to avoid migrating. For these 

 reasons it must be considered one of our most important duck plants. This 

 Potamogeton, which grows entirely submerged and in water up to 8 feet in depth 

 furnishes an edible leaf besides the seed which ripens in October. The leaf with 

 this plant is much more important than the seed. These various Potamogetons 

 in addition to animal food form the principal diet of the deep water ducks in 

 Northern Ontario at the present time. 



4 



FOOD FOR MARSH DUCKS. 



As explained in above mentioned pamphlet probably more can be done to 

 increase the number of the deep water feeders than of the marsh duck, as the area 

 available for growth of edible deep water plants is much greater in Northern 

 Ontario than it is for the ones on which the marsh duck feed. If anything sub- 

 stantial is to be done in increasing the number of ducks breeding in the North, 

 the wild rice illusion must be destroyed. The common belief is that if only wild 

 rice could be grown there would be plenty of ducks. Wild rice does not support 

 the ducks ivliile they are breeding. It merely attracts those that have bred and 

 fed elsewhere to the rice beds when the seed is ripe, very often to their destruction. 

 That it will sometimes thrive in Northern Ontario can be seen by the growth in 

 Rice Lake north of Biscotasing, Summit Lake north of Nipigon, and Shoal Lake 

 near Kenora. Even if it grew everywhere it would only furnish food for possibly 

 a month or so out of the seven which the ducks spend in the north each season. 

 Moreover, as it is only an annual and is propagated solely by seed which is ex- 

 tremely delicate and loses its fertility easily, efforts to transplant it will not on 

 the whole be accompanied by much success. The writer has on a number of 

 occasions planted wild rice, taking every precaution to have the seed in proper 

 condition, but the results have never been worth the trouble ; at the best after 

 several years there would be a few miserable scattered tufts of wild rice showing 

 here and there. 



As something greatly superior to wild rice, because it supplies food from the 

 spring to the fall, and has an extraordinarily rapid rate of increase and is easily 

 transplanted and is even transported by the ducks themselves, the writer recom- 

 mends plants of the Lemna family. Large numbers of black duck have been 

 observed where this was almost the sole food. This plant, which is described by 

 Mr. Thomson looks like tiny clover leaves growing on the surface of the water; 

 at a distance it would be mistaken for a green scum. As the tiny rootlets which it 

 sends out are only about an inch long, there is nothing to fasten it to the bottom, 

 and hence it would be swept away if exposed to wind or surrent. Protected pools 

 in marshes and drowned lands are the only practical places for this plant. 

 Drowned lands with water-killed trees are particularly favorable. These will be 

 formed almost always where there is a water power developed with a proper storage 

 reservoir. Usually such lands will be a square mile or more in extent. The 

 maintenance of constant water levels so desirable for water powers is beneficial to 

 the duck plants. The violent fluctuations of these levels caused in lumbering 

 operations are very destructive of aquatic plant life. 



The plant illustrated is the Lemna minor; Lemna polyrJiiza is similar to 

 this but larger and having more rootlets. These two species as they grow on the 

 surface of the water can be transplanted by taking sphagnum moss which may be 

 obtained from flower and seed dealers and skimming the surface of the water with 

 pieces of moss of convenient size. The Lemna sticks to the moss which acts like a 



