KL i:\KN IMPORTANT WILD-DUCK FOODS. 
9 
Qorth as South Carolina and Missouri. Two other species (T.dealbata 
and '/'. barbata) occur in the region from South Carolina, and Missouri 
south to Florida and Texas. Their value as duck food is unknown. 
PROPAGATION. 
Thalia can be propagated from either seeds or rootstocks. The 
seeds have a thick shell and the rootstocks are massive, so that neither 
should be injured if transported with ordinary precautions. Thalia 
occurs in greatest abundance in muddy sloughs, but it will grow in 
open water from 2 to 3 feet deep. 
If planted directly into open 
water, rootstocks should be used. 
Seeds should either be placed in ^|f 
shallow water or sprouted in a 
protected place and the young 
plants set out after they have at- 
tained some size. 
WATER ELM. 
VALUE AS DUCK FOOD. 
That trees should produce 
food for wild ducks is at first 
thought surprising, but many do, 
as oaks, thorns, hollies, ashes, 
hackberries, and others; none is 
of more value for this purpose, 
however, than the water elm. 
The most common wild duck 
in central Louisiana is the mal- 
lard; in fact it outnumbers all 
other species combined. Foods 
important to it, therefore, are 
the important duck-foods of the region. One hundred and seventy- 
one mallards collected in the vicinity of Mansura and Marksville, 
during October, November, and December, had fed on the seeds of 
water elm to the extent of 45.5 per cent of their total subsistence. 
The largest number of seeds taken by a single duck was upward of 
200. These tightly filled the whole gullet and gizzard. 
Other species of ducks seem to be fond of the seeds, judging from 
smaller numbers examined from this region. These include the 
black duck and the ringneck. Water-elm seeds are eaten by Arkansas 
mallards also. 
83175°— Bull. 205—15 2 
Fig. 7.— Leaves and fruit of water elm. 
