32 BULLETIN 862, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
VEGETABLE Foop. 
Vegetable matter constitutes about seven-eighths (87.15 per cent) 
of the total food of the pintail. This is made up of the following 
items: Pondweeds, 28.04 per cent; sedges, 21.78; grasses, 9.64; 
smartweeds and docks, 4.74; arrowgrass, 4.52; musk grass and other 
algae, 3.44; arrowhead and water plantain, 2.84; goosefoot family, 
2.58; waterlily family, 2.57; duckweeds, 0.8; water milfoils, 0.21; 
and miscellaneous vegetable food, 5.99 per cent. 
PONDWEEDS (NAIADACEAE), 28.04 PER CENT. 
The pondweed, the family of plants which furnishes the largest item 
of food for the pintail, is the favorite also of several other species of 
ducks, including the gadwall and the baldpate. The latter two 
species, however, partake very largely of the leaves and stems of 
the plants, while the pintail prefers the seeds. Of the whole number 
of stomachs of the pintail, 254 contamed seeds or other parts of 
widgeon grass (Ruppia maritima), at least four of them with from 
1,000 to 1,300 seeds each. Two others contained about 2,800 seeds 
each of unidentified species of true pondweed (Potamogeton), and 
another held over 2,000 seeds of horned pondweed (Zannichellia 
palustris). Seeds of sago pondweed (Potamogeton pectinatus), small 
pondweed (P. pusiilus), leafy pondweed (P. jfoliosus), and curly 
pondweed (P. diversifolius) were identified m a few instances, but - 
pondweed seeds of which the species could not be determined were 
found in 271 stomachs. Seeds of horned pondweed were present 
in 18 stomachs, those of bushy pondweed (Navas flexilis) in 23, while 
the seeds, and occasionally leaves, of eelgrass (Zostera marina) were 
found in 93, and amounted to 4.03 per cent of the pintail’s total 
food. This item was most abundant in the stomachs of a series of 
birds from the southwestern coast of Washington. 
SEDGES (CYPERACEAE), 21.78 PER CENT. 
The seeds of sedges are second only to the pondweeds in importance 
in the food of the pintail. The plants of this family often are 
semisubmerged, or grow in marshy situations. Probably most of 
the seeds are taken from the water after they have ripened and 
fallen, although no doubt a great many are picked from the shorter 
plants and those which are bent low over the water. Seeds of the 
common three-cornered bulrush, or three-square (Scirpus amer- 
canus), were identified from 155 of the pintail stomachs, those of 
prairie bulrush (8. paludosus) from 84, salt-marsh bulrush {S. ro- 
bustus) from 29, Scirpus cubensis from 8, river bulrush (S. fluviatilis) 
from 3, and unidentified bulrushes from 154. Seeds of saw grass 
(Cladium effusum), spike rush (Eleocharis sp.), chufa (Cyperus 
sp.), beaked rush (Rhynchospora sp.), and sedges of the genera Fvm- 
