14 
BULLETIN 205, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
duck and wild celery. So far as investigations of the food of the 
biant are concerned the published record is thoroughly substanti- 
ated. All normal stomach contents of the common brant thus far 
examined consisted exclusively of eel-grass. Other salt-water fowl 
also feed on eel-grass, as the surf and white-winged scoters. Six birds 
of the latter species collected at Netarts Bay. Oregon, had made 43 
per cent of their last meal of it. The list of other ducks feeding on 
the plant includes the golden-eye, old squaw, bufflehead, mallard, and 
black duck, the last-named species sometimes devouring the seeds of 
Fig. 12.— Range of swamp privet. 
eel-grass in large numbers. The stomachs of 5 black ducks collected 
at Amityville, Long Island, N. Y., in October and November, 
contained on the average more than 66 per cent of eel-grass seeds, the 
number of seeds per stomach varying from 700 to 4,000. Eleven 
birds taken at Scarboro, Me., during the same months had eaten 
enough eel-grass seeds to make up 51 per cent of their food. In three 
cases fully 2,000 seeds had been taken. Thirteen ducks of the same 
species collected in Massachusetts in January and February had 
taken eel-grass, including both seeds and leaves, to the extent of more 
