94 BULLETIN 862, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
SEDGES Coe 18.79 PER CENT. 
The sedges are grasslike or rushlike plants which grow in marshes 
or on the borders of ponds and streams. Ducks are especially fond 
of their seeds, which usually are small and hard and have a starchy 
interior. The family of sedges is a very large one, comprising about 
3,200 species, widely distributed. The seeds most often found in 
duck stomachs are those of the bulrushes (Scirpus spp.), and the case 
of the blue-winged teal is no exception to this rule. Unidentified 
bulrush seeds were found in 184 stomachs, those of river bulrush 
(S. fluviatilis) m1 18, three-square (S. americanus) in 10, prairie 
bulrush (S. paludosus) in 7, and great bulrush (S. validus) and salt- 
marsh bulrush (S. robustus) in 2 each. Other sedges taken were those 
of the genus Carex, found in 59 stomachs; saw grass (Cladiwm ef- 
fusum and C. marvscoides), in 55; chufa (Cyperus spp.), in 45; spike 
rush (Eleocharis spp.), in 33; beaked rush (Rhynchospora sp.), in 2; 
and sedges of the genera Pimbristylis, in 40; and Dulichiwm, in 2. 
Unidentified sedge seeds or bits of the plants were taken by 27 birds. 
PONDWEEDS (NAIADACEAE) 12.6 PER CENT. 
In 33 of the stomachs examined the seeds or other parts of pond- 
weeds formed from 95 to 100 per cent of the total food contents. 
The true pondweeds (Potamogeton spp.) had been taken by 151 birds, 
widgeon grass (Ruppia maritima) by 87, bushy pondweed (Najas 
flexilis and N. marina) by 18, eelgrass (Zostera marina) by 3, and 
horned pondweed (Zannichellia palustris) by 2. One stomach held 
over 700 of the hard black seeds of widgeon grass. Most ducks feed 
upon all parts of pondweed plants, and the “plue-winged teal seems 
to pay much attention to the leaves and stems as well as the seeds. 
GRASSES (GRAMINEAE), 12.26 PER CENT. 
Of the 319 blue-winged teals examined, only 13 had eaten culti- 
vated grain. One of these, obtained in Kansas in April, had its 
gizzard filied with 19 kernels of corn and fragments of more, but corn 
taken at that time of year could hardly have been anything but waste. 
The other 12 birds had eaten rice, and as all were collected in Florida 
in November, this, too, was undoubtedly waste grain. Of the wild 
grasses the favorites were wild rice (Zizania palustris), taken by 22 
birds; switchgrass (Panicum sp.), by 18; the foxtails (Chaetochloa 
glauca, C. viridis, and others), by 14; rice cut-grass (Homalocenchrus 
oryzoides), by 9; and Monanthochloé littoralis, by 13. Other species 
less often taken were meadow grass (Puccinellia nutialliana), barn- 
yard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli), cut-grass (Zizaniopsis miliacea), 
rushgrass (Sporobolus sp.), and salt-marsh grass (Spartina sp.). 
