170 



THE GAME BREEDER 



good. Success surely will follow the 

 restocking of thousands of miles of the 

 former range of the grouse provided the 

 work be undertaken in the proper way 

 and competent game keepers be em- 

 ployed to look after the game. 



Mr. Judd says for the purposes of his 

 report the contents of 71 stomachs of 

 prairie hens were examined. Fortun- 

 ately this material represents not only 



the shooting season, but all other months 

 except July. Most of the stomachs 

 came from the Dakotas, Minnesota, 

 Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Texas. 

 Illinois and Ontario furnished the rest. 

 The food consisted of 14.11 per cent, 

 animal matter and 85.87 per cent, vege- 

 table matter. The former was insects ; 

 the latter seeds, fruit and grain, leaves, 

 flowers and bud twigs. 



(To be continued.) 



ELEVEN IMPORTANT WILD DUCK FOODS. 



Fourth Paper. 

 By W. L. McAtee. 



Eel-Grass. 



Value as Duck Food. 



Few who have written of the habits 

 of sea brant have failed to mention its 

 fondness for eel-grass. The relation be- 

 tween this species of bird and plant 

 seems to be as close as, if not closer 

 than, that existing between the noted 

 fresh-water pair, the canvasback duck 

 and wild celery. So far as investiga- 

 tions of the food of the brant are con- 

 cerned the published record is thorough- 

 ly substantiated. 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 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 eaten 

 enough eel-grass seeds to make up 51 

 per cent, of their food. In three cases 

 fully 2,000 seeds had been taken. Thir- 



teen ducks of the same species collected 

 in Massachusetts in January and Febru- 

 ary had taken eel-grass, including both 

 seeds and leaves, to the extent of more 

 than 11 per cent, of their food. The 

 wigeon, a species which prefers foliage 

 to the seeds and roots of aquatic plants, 

 sometimes visits salt water to feed upon 

 this plant. Five of these birds taken at 

 South Island, Souh Carolina, in Febru- 

 ary, had made one-fourth of their meal 

 of the leaves of eel-grass. 



Description of Plcmt. 



Eel-grass (Zostera marina) consists 

 of bunches of long tapelike leaves which 

 rise from a jointed fibrous-rooted creep- 

 ing stem (Fig. 13). The leaves bear a 

 strong superficial resemblance to those of 

 wild celery, but they are rarely more than 

 a fourth of an inch wide, while those of 

 wild celery are seldom as narrow. The 

 leaf of eel-grass, furthermore, is tougher 

 and more leathery than that of wild cel- 

 ery. When a mature leaf is torn across, 

 numerous white fibers may be seen at 

 the broken ends. Wild celery lacks 

 these. The color of eel-grass leaves is 

 olive or dark green, that of wild celery 

 clear light green.* 



The l eaves grow in small bundles 



*Unaer the microscope the leaves of these 

 two plants are very unlike. The Chlorophyll 

 granules of Zosteria are arranged in regular 

 longitudinal rows, and the edge of the leaf is 

 smooth. The Chlorophyll granules of Vallis- 

 neria, on the contrary, are irregularly arranged 

 and the edge of the leaf is sparingly beset with 

 minute teeth. 



