THE GAME BREEDER 



13 



plant, as also do ducks when they are 

 hard pressed. Testimony as to the value 

 of the plant has come from Wisconsin 

 and Oregon, and the Biological Survey 

 has found seeds of wild millet in duck 

 stomachs from Massachusetts, South 

 Dakota, Missouri, and Nebraska in addi- 

 tion to the States above mentioned. 



The plant is popularly known through- 

 out lower Louisiana as wild rice and is 

 given about the same rank as a duck 



spiny appearance (fig. 11). The inner 

 scale of the- chaff terminates in a spine 

 which is always stouter and longer than 

 the others. This spine or awn may be 

 very short or it may be from 2 to 3 

 inches long or more, surpassing by many 

 times the length of the seed. One of the 

 other scales also may bear a long spine at 

 the tip. The prickly character of the 

 seed coverings is referred to in the name 

 cockspur grass. The longer awns in par- 



Fig. 12 — Fruiting heads of wild millet. (One-third natural size.) 



food as the plant (Zizania aquatica) 

 known by that name in the north. Other 

 popular names referring to the prefer- 

 ence of wild fowl for the plant are goose 

 grass and blue duck food. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLANT. 



Wild millet is a coarse, leafy grass 

 which grows from 1 to 6 feet in height. 

 The stems and foilage are not especially 

 remarkable, but the fruiting head has 

 characters which enable us easily to dis- 

 tinguish this from other species of native 

 grasses The chaff or outer seed cover- 

 ings is set with rows of short, stiff, out- 

 standing spines. These project beyond 

 the general outline of the body of the 

 seeds and give them an easily visible 



ticular and sometimes the whole fruiting 

 heads may have a deep purplish color. 

 This, no doubt, suggested the name blue 

 duck food used in the Mississippi Delta. 

 The long-awned form lias been given the 

 varietal name longearistata but for pres- 

 ent purposes we may consider all the 

 types illustrated in figures 11 and 12 un- 

 der the same name. It is probable als:> 

 that the form named Echinochloa waited 

 is fully connected with crus-galli by in- 

 tergrades, and deserves only varietal 

 rank. This form has the lower or all 

 leaf sheaths rough hispid. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



The northern limit of the range of 

 wild millet SO far as known to us does 



