18 BULLETIN 862, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
account of the fact that the birds have little suspicion of man and 
fly in compact flocks, affording opportunities for pot shots, the green- 
winged teal has een greatly reduced in numbers. It is one of our 
most desirable game birds and should be carefully cuarded against 
further depletion. 
VEGETABLE Foop. 
Of the contents of 653° green-winged teal stomachs examined, 
more than nine-tenths (90.67 per cent) consisted of vegetable matter. 
By far the largest item of food contributed by any one family of 
plants came from the sedges, and this amounted to nearly two-fifths 
(38.82 per cent) of the total food. Next to the sedges, pondweeds 
are the favorite food supply, contributing 11.52 per cent, while 
grasses follow closely with 11, then smartweeds 5.25, algae 4.63, 
duckweeds 1.9, water milfoils 1.11, arrow-grass 0:91, and bur reed 
0.85 per cent. The remaining 14.68 per cent is made up of a great 
number of smaller items. 
SEDGES (CYEERACEAE), 38.82 PER CENT. 
The sedges form a very constant item of food for the oreen-winged 
teal, being found in some form in 530 of 653 stomachs and forming the 
sole content of 51. Usually the seeds are taken, but practically all 
~ parts of the plants are eaten when young and tender. Seeds of bul- 
rushes (Scirpus spp.) form the largest item among the sedges, being 
found in the greatest number of stomachs and represented by several 
species. Unidentified bulrush seeds were found in 205 stomachs. 
The most commonly identified species was three-square (Scirpus 
americanus) from 121 stomachs. Seeds of prairie bulrush (Scirpus 
paludosus) were found in 46 stomachs, those of salt-marsh bulrush 
(Scirpus robustus) in 40, Scirpus cubensis in 13, and river bulrush 
(Scirpus fluviatilis) in 5. Other genera of sedges represented were 
Fimbristylis, found in 90 stomachs, Carex in 72, Cyperus 48, spike 
rush (Eleocharis) 45, beaked rushes (Rhynchospora) 5, saw grass 
(Cladium) 91, and unidentified sedge seeds in 44. No fewer than 
30,000 seeds of a Cyperus were found in one stomach and 25,000 in 
another, while Eleocharis and Fimbristylis seeds also occasionally 
reached as high as 1,000 per stomach. 
PONDWEEDS (NAIADACEAE), 11.52 PER CENT. 
The pondweed group includes the true pondweeds (Potamogeton 
spp.), ditch or widgeon grass (Ruppia marituma), horned pondweed 
— (Zannichellia palustris), eelgrass (Zostera marina), and bushy pond- 
weed (Najas spp.), all of which were found in stomachs of the 
ereen-winged teal, and seem to form a very important element of 
their diet. In most cases the seeds alone are taken, but the ducks 
8 Two hundred and sixteen of these were examined by W. L. McAtee. 
