ELEVEN IMPORTANT WILD-DUCK FOODS. 9 



north as South Carolina and Missouri. Two other species (T. dealbata 

 and T. barbata) occur in the region from South Carolina and Missouri 

 south to Florida and Texas. Their value as duck food is unknown. 



PROPAGATION. 



Thalia can be propagated from either seeds or rootstocks. The 

 seeds have a thick shell and the rootstocks are massive, so that neither 

 should be injured if transported with ordinary precautions. Thalia 

 occurs in greatest abundance in muddy sloughs, but it will grow in 

 open water from 2 to 3 feet deep. 

 If planted directly into open 

 Water, rootstocks should be used. 

 Seeds should either be placed in 

 shallow water or sprouted in a 

 protected place and the young 

 plants set out after they have at- 

 tained some size. 



WATER ELM. 



VALUE AS DUCK FOOD. 



That trees should produce 

 food for wild ducks is at first 

 thought surprising, but many do, 

 as oaks, thorns, hollies, ashes, 

 hackberries, and others; none is 

 of more value for this purpose, 

 however, than the water elm. 



The most common wild duck 

 in central Louisiana is the mal- 

 lard; in fact it outnumbers all 

 other species combined. Foods 



. „ Fig. 7.— Leaves and fruit of water elm. 



important to it, there! ore, are 



the important duck-foods of the region. One hundred and seventy- 

 one mallards collected in the vicinity of Mansura and Marksville, 

 during October, November, and December, had fed on the seeds of 

 water elm to the extent of 45.5 per cent of their total subsistence. 

 The largest number of seeds taken by a single duck was upward of 

 200. These tightly filled the whole gullet and gizzard. 



Other species of ducks seem to be fond of the seeds, judging from 

 smaller numbers examined from this region. These include the 

 black duck and the ringneck. Water-elm seeds are eaten by Arkansas 

 mallards also. 



83175°— Bull. 205—15—2 



