40 BULLETIN 862, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Carex were commonly taken, usually in small numbers; unidentified 
kinds were present in 33 gizzards, the seeds of panicled sedge (Carex 
decomposita) in 21, and hop sedge (C. lupuliformis) in 8. Other 
sedge seeds found were those of river bulrush (Scirpus fluviatilis), 
Fimbristylis, spike rush (Eleocharis sp.), beaked rush (Rhynchospora 
sp.), and unidentified sedges. 
GRASSES (GRAMINEAE), 8.17 PER CENT. 
Chief among the grasses which contribute to the food of the wood 
duck is wild rice (Zizania palustris). Its seeds are fed upon by practi- 
cally all the fresh water ducks, and it presents such an attractive 
source of food supply as to entice even the wood duck from its 
secluded haunts to the open marshes where the wild rice grows. 
According to Kumlien and Hollister,'* the wood duck, in fall, ‘‘ resorts 
to the great wild rice marshes, and while the rice lasts that seems to 
be its principal food.” Wild rice had been eaten by 17 of the wood 
ducks examined, and when present usually furnished the bulk of the 
food. The stomach and gullet of one duck shot at Point Pelee, 
Ontario, contained no fewer than 1,200 seeds of wild rice, with 
remains of others. Another wood duck, taken at Sand Point, Mich.., 
in August, had filled its craw and gizzard with about 400 flowers of 
the plant, whole heads of which had been swallowed. An article of 
food which seems to be very much relished by the ducks wherever 
found is the seeds of meadow grass (Panicularia nervata). Of a series 
of 22 wood ducks taken at Caruthersville, in extreme southeastern 
Missouri, 17 had been feeding upon these seeds. The stomachs and 
cullets of 7 contained, respectively, from 5,300 to 10,000 seeds to each 
_ individual, the seeds constituting from 75 to 96 per cent of the food. 
The seeds of a switchgrass (Panicum, subgenus Dichantheliuum) were 
found in considerable quantities in several of the stomachs from 
Louisiana, some of which contained in addition remains of the stems 
and leaves of the same grass. In addition to the grasses already 
mentioned, the seeds of other switchgrasses (Panicum spp.), wild 
millet (Hchinochloa crus-galli), cut-grass (Zizaniopsis miliacea), rice 
cut-grass (Homalocenchrus oryzoides), and love grass (Eragrostis sp.) 
were identified. The stomach of one wood duck taken near Chicago, 
Tll., in October, was filled with corn, and one from Louisiana contained 
traces of cultivated rice. 
PONDWEEDS (NAIADACEAE), 6.53 PER CENT. 
In the pondweeds is another family of plants which is important as 
a source of food for many species of ducks and to secure which the 
wood duck departs to some extent from its normal feeding habits. 
14 Kumlien, L., and N. Hollister, The Birds of Wisconsin: Bull. Wisconsin Nat. Hist. Soc., III, p. 21, 
1903. 
