ATTRACTING BIRDS TO RESERVATIONS. 3 



ing catering to, and thus increasing the numbers of, waterfowl, and, 

 with the same objects in view, improving suitable ranges for upland 

 game birds. 1 



ATTRACTING WATERFOWL. 



The chief attraction for our most important waterfowl, the ducks 

 and geese, is a copious supply of food, furnished by aquatic and semi- 

 aquatic plants. Since these plants are the basic source of food of 

 small animals, as insects, crustaceans, and fishes, upon which ducks 

 and geese as well as other waterfowl feed, it is evident that increasing 

 the vegetable food resources of wild ducks and geese also improves 

 living conditions for all the other feathered inhabitants of marshes and 

 lakes. 



The vegetable food of wild fowl is derived from a great variety of 

 plants. An important part of it consists of the tubers, seeds, and 

 foliage of submerged water plants of the groups of pondweeds, musk 

 grasses, wild celery, widgeon-grass, coontail, and milfoils. The 

 plants which at least in part float upon the surface, including the 

 waterlilies, duckweeds, water primroses, water pennyworts, and 

 frogbit, also supply much wild-duck food. Semisubmerged plants 

 of value comprise a long series of bur-reeds, arrowheads, smartweeds, 

 and other plants, as thalia, pickerel weed, and watercress, together 

 with all the marsh grasses and sedges, among which are some of the 

 most important species, as wild rice, wild millet, cord and switch 

 grasses, meadow grass, and bulrushes. A similar and valuable 

 duck-food plant suited to drier ground is chufa, but a large number 

 of shore plants of entirely different character produce large quan- 

 tities of food for waterfowl. These are mast and fruit-producing 

 shrubs and trees which grow in shallows or on the margins of bodies 

 of water. Among them may be especially mentioned buttonbush, 

 water elm, water privet, swamp holly, cypress, hackberries, oaks, 

 hickories, ashes, red haws, and grapes. 



Cover plants which furnish concealment for nests, as well as for 

 the birds themselves in time of need, are almost as important to 

 wild fowl as food. Fortunately, many plants furnish both food and 

 cover, the most valuable being the bulrushes and such marsh grasses 

 as reed, salt, cord, and switch grasses. 



Furnishing waterfowl resorts with as complete as possible an 

 assortment of the plants named is certain to result in an increased 

 number of birds frequenting them. Methods of propagating most 

 of these species are described in two bulletins of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture: No. 205, Eleven Important Wild-Duck 

 Foods; and No. 465, Propagation of Wild-Duck Foods. 



1 Where local conditions warrant, these projects should receive attention also in national parks and forests. 



