THE GAME BREEDER 



FIVE IMPORTANT WILD DUCK FOODS. 



Part II.— By W. L. McAtee. 

 Assistant Biologist, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



the wood duck, mottled duck, mallard, 

 and canvasback. 



Chufa. 



Like some of the other duck foods 



mentioned in this circular, chufas are at description of plant. 



present known to be of only local impor- The chuga (Cyperus esculentus) (fig. 



tance. Those best acquainted with con- 8) belongs to the group of plants known 



ditions at Big Lake, Ark., one of the as sedges. These are grass-like and us- 



Fig. 7.— Range of the wapato. See March number. 



most famous hunting grounds of the 

 South, believe that the chufa, or nut 

 grass, as it is there called, is the principal 

 element in rendering that lake so attrac- 

 tive to waterfowl. Examination of 

 stomachs from that locality seems to jus- 

 tify this belief. Six out of a series of 

 nine mallards collected at Big Lake in 

 December, 1910, had fed on sedge 

 tubers, the average percentage of which 

 in the total food of the nine was 56. 

 Tubers of this species or others of its 

 genus have been found also in duck 

 stomachs from Florida, Illinois, Minne- 

 sota, and California. The species of 

 ducks now known to feed on chufas are 



ually classed with the grasses by non- 

 botanists. Many of the sedges, however, 

 including the chufa, have triangular, not 

 round, stalks. The members of the ge- 

 nus Cyperus have a group of leaves at 

 the base from which rises the stalk 

 bearing the flowers and seeds. In the 

 chufa these stalks are from 1 to 3 feet 

 high. Several flower clusters on pedun- 

 cles of varying length rise from the top 

 of the stalk. From the same point three 

 rather long grass-like leaves project be- 

 low the fruiting clusters. 



Many members of the genus have a 

 very similar appearance and it is not ex- 

 pected that nonbotanical observers can 



