12 BULLETIN 936, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
entire marsh. It grows usually to a* height of from 18 inches to 2 feet 
or more, according to the locality. The plant has a three-sided stem, 
from which sheathlike leaves spring at different levels, and it grows 
from a bulb as large as a walnut. The head bears from 6 to 20 or 
more ovate, flat brown or blackish seeds with sharp, pointed tips. 
These seeds begin to mature in July and August and are a favorite 
food of ducks, especially of those species known as the shallow- 
water or river ducks. The stems of the tules themselves are used 
by hunters in building blinds. During late summer these growths 
of rushes furnish much of the cover that protects the waterfowl 
during the molt and later the ducks visit them for food. Most duck 
stomachs examined contained from one to many of the seeds of this 
plant. 
Bayonet grass is of great importance as a food supply, as, though 
many of the seeds drop to the ground in fall, a good proportion 
remain in the seed heads until the following year and persist in 
abundance as late as May and the first part of June. In this way 
they furnish a food supply late in fall when other stocks are sealed 
with ice. and in spring these seeds again are available to the ducks 
returning from the south. 
Other plants, also present in abundance, furnish valuable foods for 
ducks. Samphire or salicornia (Salicornia rubra) covers great areas 
of otherwise barren flats, and in less saline soils a saltbush known as 
lambVquarters, or duck lettuce (Atriplex hastata), is abundant. 
In fall the ducks eat the fleshy leaves and stems of these plants to a 
considerable extent. The seeds of a dock (Rumex crisjms) are 
relished, as are the seed heads of the abundant salt grass (Distichlis 
spicata). In very saline waters a musk grass (Cham sp.) and ditch 
grass (Ruppia occidentalis) , both favored duck foods, are common, 
and there are a number of other species of plants whose seeds, leaves, 
or stems are relished which are likewise common though less abundant 
than those enumerated above. 
A complete list of the plants available as duck foods in this area, 
with some indication of their occurrence, follows: 
Species Geowing Submerged. 
Sago pondweed (Potamogeton pectinatus). Abundant. 
Ditch grass (Ruppia occidentalis). Common. 
Musk grass (Chara sp.). Common. 
Long-leaved pondweed (Potamogeton americanus) . Common near Corinne. 
Floating Plants. 
Duckweed (Lemma sp.). Fairly common in fres'h water. 
Water smartweod (Polygonum amphihiam). Fairly common. 
White water crowfoot (BatracMum trichophyllum) . Fairly common. 
