56 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



to the water, or are carried there in the bill of the parent, at 

 an early age, and the mother with her brood spends the sum- 

 mer in some secluded nook in a swamp or creek. They feed 

 not only in or near the water, but often wander into the drier 

 parts of the woods to pick up acorns or other nuts, and berries. 

 They are very swift of flight, the wings producing a whistling 

 sound. 



Food habits. — ^About nine-tenths of the wood duck's food 

 consists of vegetable matter; duckweed apparently furnishes 

 the favorite food wherever it can be obtained, since it was 

 present in 196 of the 413 stomachs examined in the Biological 

 Survey, often to the exclusion of any other food. Cone scales 

 and galls from cypress trees furnished the next largest item 

 in the stomachs examined, this duck standing alone in its 

 choice of this rather peculiar diet. Like many other ducks, 

 the wood duck feeds on the seeds of sedges, rushes, and 

 grasses, though in smaller quantities than the true marsh- 

 feeding species. Of the grasses, wild rice is most sought after 

 and in certain localities, while it lasts, is said to furnish the 

 favorite food of this duck. Other important items in the 

 vegetable food are the seeds and tubers of pondweeds, seeds 

 of waterlilies and wild grapes, and the fruit of the buttonbush, 

 swamp privet (Adelia acuminata), and the water elm (Pla- 

 nera aqtiatica). 



Mast formed about 6 per cent of the food in the stomachs 

 examined, but more extended collections in certain localities 

 doubtless would show a larger percentage, for many writers 

 testify to the fondness of the wood duck for acorns and beech- 

 nuts. Besides these nuts, the species in the South feeds ex- 

 tensively on the nuts of the water hickory (Hicoria aquatica). 



The animal food of the wood duck amounts to nearly 10 per 

 cent of the total, and consists chiefly of dragonflies, bugs, 

 beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and a few other insects, and 

 a small quantity of crustaceans.* 



Stomachs of 2 individuals taken in November in Town 

 Creek, near Muscle Shoals, contained fragments of galls, 

 leaves, seeds of the hornbeam (Carpinus) and dogwood 

 (Comus), and a few insect remains; one taken in the Tensaw 



♦Mabbott, D. C, Bull. 862, U. S. Dept. Agr., pp. S7-48, 1920. 



