THE GAME BREEDER 



19 



used for other purposes. This has problem must be solved because people 



raised the price of beef and mutton accustomed to eating meat cannot exist 



until now they are almost beyond the without it. Here, then, is a substitute 



reach of even the well-to-do people, and for both cheap meat and cheap fur, 



they are still soaring in price. But, this namely — The Black Siberian Hare. 



IMPORTANT WILD DUCK FOODS. 



Wigeon-Grass. 

 By W. L. McAtee, Asst. U. S. Biological Survey, 



Value as Duck Food. 



Wigeon-grass is of rather restricted 

 range, but of considerable importance as 

 a duck food almost everywhere it grows. 

 In no locality, so far as known, is it 

 more important than on the coast of 

 Texas. Here the bays that have kept 

 their wigeon-grass have kept their ducks ; 

 those in which the plant have been de- 

 stroyed by influxes of mud and filling 

 up of inlets have lost them. At Rock- 

 port, Tex., wigeon-grass still holds its 

 own and is the main dependence of the 

 visiting vegetarian ducks. About 64 per 

 cent, of the food of 33 pintails collected 

 at Rockport in December was made up 

 of rootstocks, leaves and seeds of 

 wigeon-grass. This plant furnished also 

 two-thirds of the food of 3 wigeons, and 

 more than 54 per cent, of that of 37 red- 

 heads taken at the same time. 



Records of the food of ducks on St. 

 Vincent Island, Florida, show two other 

 species of ducks to be very fond of this 

 grass. Nineteen little bluebills collected 

 in January had eaten it, principally the 

 seeds, to the extent of over 63 per cent, 

 of their food, the number of seeds per 

 stomach varying from 500 to 4,000. The 

 food of 17 gadwells taken at the same 

 time and place was 84 per cent, wigeon- 

 grass, and the stomach of a redhead con- 

 tained about 5,120 seeds. 



Most of the duck stomachs received 

 by the Biological Survey from South 

 Island, South Carolina, have contained 

 wigeon-grass. It composed 41 per cent, 

 of the food of 3 blue-winged teals col- 

 lected there in March, and 27 per cent, 

 of that of 8 gadwells obtained in Feb- 

 ruary and March. In Currituck Sound, 



North Carolina, wigeon-grass grows 

 among too great a profusion of other 

 valuable duck foods to have the import- 

 ance attained in less favored localities j 

 nevertheless, it is a plant of considerable 

 value. Practically 10 per cent, of the 

 food of 35 big bluebills collected there 

 in November was composed of wigeon- 

 grass, as was about the same proportion 

 of the diet of 70 little bluebills. 



At Back Bay, Virginia, 17 per cent, 

 of the food of 19 pintails collected in 

 February consisted of wigeon-grass, 

 and at Virginia City, Va., 16 per cent. 

 of the food of 14 mallards taken in 

 January was of the same composition. 



Other ducks found feeding on wigeon- 

 grass are the Florida duck, black duck, 

 green-winged and cinnamon teals, spoon- 

 bill, canvasback, ringneck, bufflehead, old 

 squaw, ruddy duck, surf scoter and 

 hooded merganser. 



Description of Plant. 

 _ Wigeon-grass (Ruppia maritima) is 

 similar in habit to sago pondweed or 

 foxtail. Both have long, slender, fila- 

 mentous leaves on widely spreading, 

 much-branched seems. In wigeon-grass 

 the basal parts of many of the leaves are 

 enlarged (Fig. 15) and this, upon close 

 inspection, gives the plant quite a differ- 

 ent appearance from sago pondweed. 

 The seeds of sago pondweed are com- 

 pactly grouped on a central axis, while 

 those of wigeon-grass are borne singly 

 on rather long stalks which radiate from 

 the top of the fruiting peduncle (Fig. 

 16). The latter organ usually is spirally 

 coiled in wigeon-grass; in sago pond- 

 weed it never has more than a simple 

 curve. The rootstock of wigeon-grass is 



