14 



BULLETIN 205, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



duck and wild celery. So far as investigations of the food of the 

 biant are concerned the published record is thoroughly substanti- 

 ated. All normal stomach contents of the common brant thus far 

 examined consisted exclusively of eel-grass. Other salt-water fowl 

 also feed on eel-grass ; as the surf and white-winged scoters. Six birds 

 of the latter species collected at Netarts Bay, Oregon, had made 43 

 per cent of their last meal of it. The list of other ducks feeding on 

 the plant includes the golden-eye, old squaw, bufflehead, mallard, and 

 black duck, the last-named species sometimes devouring the seeds of 



Fig. 12. — Range of swamp privet. 



eel-grass in large numbers. The stomachs of 5 black ducks collected 

 at Amityville, Long Island, N. Y., in October and November, 

 contained on the average more than 66 per cent of eel-grass seeds, the 

 number of seeds per stomach varying from 700 to 4,000. Eleven 

 birds taken at Scarboro, Me., during the same months had efiten 

 enough eel-grass seeds to make up 51 per cent of their food. In three 

 cases fully 2,000 seeds had been taken. Thirteen ducks of the same 

 species collected in Massachusetts in January and February had 

 taken eel-grass, including both seeds and leaves, to the extent of more 



