30 BULLETIN 862, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
. ANIMAL Foon. 
The 41 cinnamon teals examined had made of animal matter 20.14 
per cent of their food. This consisted of insects, 10.19 per cent: 
mollusks, 8.69 per cent; and a few small miscellaneous items, 1.26 
per cent. 
INSECTS (INSECTA), 10.19 PER CENT. 
Over half the insect food of the series of cinnamon teals (5.4 per 
cent of the whole) consisted of beetles (Coleoptera). Disregarding 
several unidentified fragments, only four families were represented, 
the predacious diving beetles (Dytiscidae), water scavenger beetles 
(Hydrophilidae), leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae), and snout beetles 
(Curculionidae). 
The bugs (Heteroptera) amounted to 2.97 per cent, and sonaieten 
entirely of water boatmen (Corixidae). These are small brown or 
oray mottled bugs, with oarlike legs well fitted for swimming; they 
frequent the lakes, ponds, and streams throughout the greater part 
of North America, and are commonly eaten by many species of water 
birds. As they are very good swimmers, it must require quick work 
on the part of the ducks to catch them. They were found in 11 of 
the 41 stomachs. 
Remains of dragonflies (Anisoptera) were found in two gizzards, 
and a nymph of a dragonfly or a damselfly in another. The dragon- 
flies and damselflies (Zygoptera) together constitute the superorder 
Odonata, which furnished 0.92 per cent of thefood of thecinnamon teal. 
The flies (Diptera) taken were mostly larvae, and amounted to 
0.62 per cent. Flies of at least four families—the midges (Chirono- 
midae), soldierflies (Stratiomyidae), flower flies (Syrphidae), and 
brine flies (Ephydridae)—were included. <A few insect eggs, bits. 
of the cases of caddis larvae (Phryganoidea), two small hymenop- 
terous cocoons, and the remains of an ant, together amounting to 
0.28 per cent, made up the remainder of the insect food. 
MOLLUSKS (MOLLUSCA), 8.69 PER CENT. 
Four of the cinnamon teals had fed upon snails and two upon 
small bivalves, and the stomachs of 15 contained fine fragments 
which were not classified. Altogether, mollusks amounted to 8.69 
per cent of the bird’s diet, a proportion considerably greater than 
that of the green-winged teal, but only about half as great as that 
of the blue-wing. 
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMAL FOOD, 1.26 PER CENT. 
The stomach of a young bird collected near Great Salt Lake, Utah, 
in July, was half filled with fine feathers. These, together with afew 
water mites (Hydrachnidae), bivalved crustaceans (Ostracoda), and 
a small quantity of unidentified matter from other stomachs, all of 
which amounted to 1.26 per cent, made up the remainder of the 
animal food of the species. 
