8 



BULLETIN 58, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



CHUFA. 



VALUE AS DUCK FOOD. 



Like some of the other duck foods mentioned in this circular, chufas 

 are at present known to be of only local importance. Those best ac- 

 quainted with conditions at Big Lake, Ark., one of the most famous 

 hunting grounds of the South, believe that the chufa, or nut grass, 

 as it is there called, is the principal element in rendering that lake 

 so attractive to waterfowl. Examination of stomachs from that local- 

 ity seems to justify this belief. Six out of a series of nine mal- 

 lards collected at Big Lake in December, 1910, had fed on sedge 

 tubers, the average percentage of which in the total food of the nine 



FIG. 7. Range of the wapato. 



was 56. Tubers of this species or others of its genus have been found 

 also in duck stomachs from Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, and California. 

 The species of ducks now known to feed on chuf as are the wood duck, 

 mottled duck, mallard, and canvasback. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLANT. 



The chufa (Cyperus esculentus} (fig. 8) belongs to the group of 

 plants known as sedges. These are grass-like and usually classed with 

 the grasses by nonbotanists. Many of the sedges, however, including 

 the chufa, have triangular, not round, stalks. The members of the 

 genus Cyperus have a group of leaves at the base from which rises 

 the stalk bearing the flowers and seeds. In the chufa these stalks 

 are from 1 to 3 feet high. Several flower clusters on peduncles of 



