24 



BULLETIN 205, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



COONTAIL. 



VALUE AS DUCK FOOD. 



The seeds of coontail are eaten by practically all wild ducks, but 

 the foliage by a much smaller number and less frequently. Ducks 

 known to feed on this plant are the following: Hooded merganser, 

 mallard, black duck, Florida duck, gadwell, wigeon, green-winged 

 and blue-winged teals, spoonbill, pintail, wood duck, redhead, 

 canvasback, little and big bluebills, ringneck, goldeneye, buffle-head, 

 old squaw, white-winged scoter, ruddy duck, and the whistling swan. 

 The following instances show the local value of coontail to some of 

 these species of ducks: 



About 30 per cent of the food of 171 mallards collected about 

 Mansura and Marksville, La., from October to December consisted 



of coontail, and as 

 many as 150 seeds 

 were found in a sin- 

 gle stomach. Much 

 more than the ordi- 

 nary proportion of 

 stems and leaves of 

 the plant were taken 

 by these birds. 



Another illustra- 

 tion of foliage eat- 

 ing is furnished by 

 8 mallards and 1 

 black duck collected at Big Lake, Arkansas, 

 in December, 1912. More than 85 per cent 

 of the food of the mallards was made up 

 of the f oliage of coontail, with a few seeds, 

 while 90 per cent of the black duck's food 

 consisted exclusively of coontail foliage. 

 Sixty-four mallards collected at Mene- 

 sha, Ark., in November and December, 1909, had fed on coontail seeds 

 to the extent of 7.23 per cent of their diet. Fourteen of the same 

 species of duck, taken at Lake Wapanoca, Arkansas, in November, 

 1910, had eaten enough seeds, with a little foliage of coontail, to 

 form on the average more than half of their food. 



The plant thus has considerable local value as a wild-duck food. 

 However, its tendency to crowd out more desirable species makes 

 transplanting unwise, unless in particularly difficult cases where other 

 plants have failed. The very qualities of coontail that make it a 

 nuisance in natural waters commend it to duck farmers. 



Fig. 21. — Coontail. A compact form. 



