8 BULLETIN 58, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
CHUFA. 
VALUE AS DUCK FOOD. 
Like some of the other duck foods mentioned in this circular, chuf as 
are at present known to be of only local importance. Those best ac- 
quainted with conditions at Big Lake, Ark., one of the 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 attractive to waterfowl. Examination of stomachs from that local- 
ity seems to justify this belief. Six out of a series of nine mal- 
lards collected at Big Lake in December, 1910, had fed on sedge 
tubers, the average percentage of which in the total food of the nine 
Fig. 
-Range of the wapato. 
was 56. Tubers of tins species or others of its genus have been found 
also in duck stomachs from Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, and California. 
The species of ducks now known to feed on chufas are the wood duck, 
mottled duck, mallard, and canvasback. 
DESCRIPTION OF PLANT. 
The chufa (Cyperus esculentus) (fig. 8) belongs to the group of 
plants known as sedges. These are grass-like and usually classed with 
the grasses by nonbotanists. Many of the sedges, however, including 
the chufa, have triangular, not round, stalks. The members of the 
genus 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 peduncles of 
