BLACK DUCK 



167 



than is the case in inland waters. Accordingly, the Black Duck consumes 

 almost three times as much animal food as the Mallard; the actual per- 

 centages contrasted, are, respectively, 24 per cent and 9 per cent. An 

 examination of the stomachs of 390 of these ducks, collected in the six 

 months from September to February, and from 19 States and 2 Canadian 

 Provinces, showed the following approximate percentages: pondweeds, 

 32; grasses, 11; sedges, 11; smartweed, 5; seeds of burr reeds, 3; seeds of 

 water shield, water lilies, and coontail, 1; miscellaneous plant food, 13; 

 total vegetable food, 76 per cent. Molluscs and shellfish, 12; crustaceans, 

 8; insects, 2; fishes, 1; miscellaneous animal food, 1; total animal food, 

 24 per cent. While the food of this duck during the months stated above 

 is only about three-fourths of plant origin, during the summer and 

 autumn its food is nearly nine-tenths vegetable, as shown by the analysis 

 of the stomach contents of 25 of these ducks shot in autumn in Massa- 

 chusetts. The principal items of food of this group were: seeds of burr 

 reed, pondweed, bulrush, eelgrass, and mermaid weed; buds, rootstocks, 

 etc., of wild celery. Total vegetable matter, 88.4 per cent. The animal 

 matter in order of importance consisted of snails, ants, larvae, bivalves, 

 crustaceans, and insects. Total animal matter, 11.6 per cent. In the au- 

 tumn Blacks resort to grain fields and feast on wheat, barley, and buck- 

 wheat; they visit the woods to enjoy acorns and beechnuts, and farther 

 south fields of rice provide a substantial part of their diet. Knight 

 (1908) says that he has known these ducks "to so gorge themselves with 

 huckleberries in late August 

 that they would go to sleep 

 under the bushes near the 

 water, and one which I 

 started from under my feet 

 in this condition when I too, 

 was after huckleberries, was 

 unable to fly, it was so 

 gorged, but it managed to 

 scramble into the water and 

 swim away, disgorging itself 

 until finally able to rise and 

 fly away, all the time quack- 

 ing incessantly." 



The following is a con- 

 densed version of a plan, de- 

 scribed by Bent (1923), that 

 is typical of the murderous 

 methods that used to be em- 

 ployed to destroy ducks in 

 Massachusetts and other 

 states: On the shore of a 

 pond frequented by migrat- 

 ing waterfowl was built a 



