NATURAL FOODS OF WILD DUCKS 45 



many acres. It is a very interesting plant, has a beauti- 

 ful bloom of great fragrance and produces small nuts 

 about the size of a rather undersized acorn, of which all 

 classes of ducks are exceedingly fond. I have not planted 

 much of any variety of Polygonum, or smartweed, but 

 have several species growing in my duck ponds, which 

 the ducks seem to feed upon very much. The two species 

 most successful in this line are the Polygonum punctatum 

 and the Polygonum lapithifolium. The latter is a very 

 large species and grows a good deal of seed, and I con- 

 sider it quite valuable as a duck food. A small sedge 

 grass grows quite freely in some of my lakes and ponds, 

 and is known by botanists as Cladium effusium. It is 

 generally distributed through the South, I believe, and is 

 frequently found in the gullets of ducks when examined. 

 I have not had any success in raising wild rice, Zizania 

 aquatica. I have sowed large quantities of wild rice ob- 

 tained from Canada and from Minnesota, and, while it 

 would grow to some extent, it would not mature seed. 

 Probably the jump in latitude was too great for it. I am 

 now endeavoring to obtain some wild rice grown in the 

 Carolinas, and hope that ^it may do better. Thalia 

 divaricata is a plant which grows on my preserve quite 

 extensively and is much sought after by ducks, espe- 

 cially mallards, who feed upon the seeds growing upon, 

 it very freely. The plants grow from five to ten feet 

 high and hang full of seed of large size, and I have been 

 planting considerable of it as I regard it as a very valu- 

 able duck food. 'Widgeon grass,' or Rupia maratima, 

 grows freely in many of the lakes and ponds of St. Vin- 

 cent's Island, and its seed is almost universally found in 

 the gullets and gizzards of ducks shot on the preserve. 



