UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 862 



Contribution from the Bureau of Biological Survey 

 E. W. NELSON, Chief 



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Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER. 



December 30, 1920 



FOOD HABITS OF SEVEN SPECIES OF AMERICAN 

 SHOAL-WATER DUCKS. 



By Douglas C. Mabbott, 1 Assistant in Economic Ornithology. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Gadwall 2 



Baldpate 10 



European widgeon 16 



Green- winged teal 17 



Page. 



Blue-winged teal • 22 



Cinnamon teal 28 



Pintail 31 



Wood duck 37 



INTRODUCTION. 



The wild ducks of the United States belong to three main groups : 

 The mergansers (Merginae), known also as fish ducks or sawbills; the 

 river ducks (Anatinae), called also shoal-water, puddle, plash, or 

 tipping ducks; and the sea ducks (Fuligulinae), otherwise known as 

 deep-water or diving ducks. This bulletin treats of the food habits 

 of eight species 2 of shoal-water ducks, one of which, the European 

 widgeon, is only a straggler in the United States. Wild ducks are 

 our most important game birds, their value to the people of the 



1 Douglas Clifford Mabbott, author of this bulletin, was a member of the heroic Sixth Regiment, United 

 States Marine Corps, and participated in all the hard fighting done by that organization at Bouresches, 

 Belleau Wood, Soissons, and in the St. Mihiel salient. He was killed in action September 15, 1918, while 

 taking part in an advance in the battle of St. Mihiel, and was buried near the village of Xammie, near 

 Thiaucourt, Prance. He was born at Arena, Wis., March 12, 1893, and became a member of the staff of the 

 Biological Survey, December 1, 1915.— Editor. 



2 Three other species, the mallard, black duck, and southern black duck, are treated in Bull. 720, U. S. 

 Dept. Agr., Food Habits of the Mallard Ducks of the United States, by W. L. McAtee, pp. 35, pi. 1, Dec. 

 23, 1918. 



Note. — This bulletin presents a technical study of the food habits of seven species of American shoal- 

 water ducks: The gadwall, the baldpate, the green-winged, blue-winged, and cinnamon teals, the pintail 

 and the wood duck; and includes a brief note on the European widgeon, which is a straggler in the United 

 States. The vegetable food preferences exhibited will serve as guide to certain wild-duck foods that may 

 be propagated when it is sought to increase the numbers of these valuable game ducks either in the wild 

 state or in domestication. For specific information on this topic, see Bull. 205, U. S. Dept. Agr.; Eleven 

 Important Wild-duck Foods, in which are discussed musk grass, duckweeds, frogbit, thalia, water elm, 

 swamp privet, eelgrass, widgeon grass, watercress, waterweed, and coontail; pp. 25, figs. 23, May 20, 1915; 

 also Bull. 465, Propagation of Wild-duck Foods, in which are discussed wild rice, wild celery, pondweeds, 

 delta potato, wapato, chufa, wild millet, and banana waterlily; pp. 40, figs. 35, Feb. 23, 1917, 

 179375°— 20 1 



