FOOD HABITS OF MALLARD DUCKS. 3 
increasing the numbers of the mallard and whatever is done to protect 
and preserve it undoubtedly va prove of benefit to many other piece: 
of wild ducks. 
FOOD HABITS. 
A total of 1,725 gizzards of the mallard, many of them accompa- 
nied by well-filled gullets, have been examined. Twenty-five 
were collected in April, August, and September, but not being 
enough fairly to represent the food in these months were not tabu- 
lated. One hundred and forty-seven stomachs were examined ! 
after ascertaining the percentages, which as quoted in the following 
pages are derived from analyses of the contents of 1,578 stomachs. 
These were collected in 22 States and in 2 Canadian Provinces. 
Louisiana is much more heavily represented than any other State, 
with Arkansas, Wisconsin, Texas, and Florida next in rank in the 
order named. The over-representation of Louisiana and Arkansas 
tends to give undue importance to the duck foods common in those 
States. This is especially noticeable with regard to products of 
plants of cypress swamps. 
Some of the stomachs of mallards were interesting on account of 
the large numbers of individual objects they contained. For in- 
stance, one collected at Hamburg, La., in February, revealed 
about 28,160 seeds of a bulrush (Scirpus cubensis), 8,700 of another 
sedge (Cyperus ferax), 35,840 of primrose willow (Jussixa sp.), and 
about 2,560 duckweeds (Lemna sp.) as the principal items, a total of 
more chem 75,200. 
Another stomach collected at the same locality in December con- 
tained no fewer than 102,400 seeds of primrose willow (Jussixa lepto- 
carpa), besides a number of other items in smaller numbers. The 
seeds in this stomach if sowed one in a place and a foot apart each 
way would suffice for 24 acres of ground. 
About one-tenth (9.47 per cent) of the food of the mallard is 
derived from the animal kingdom and nine-tenths from the vegetable. 
VEGETABLE Foon. 
Approximately nine-tenths (90.53 per cent) of the entire con- 
tents of the 1,578 mallard stomachs examined was derived from 
the vegetable kingdom. The largest proportion of the food drawn 
from any single family of plants came from the sedges and amounted 
to 21.62 per cent of the total. Grasses rank next in importance, 
supplying 13.39 per cent; then follow smartweeds, 9.83; pondweeds, 
8.23; duckweeds, 6.01; coontail, 5.97; wild celery and its allies, 4.26; 
water elm and hackberries, 4.11; wapato and its allies, 3.54; and 
acorns 2.34 percent. “Numerous minor items make up the remainder. 
1By E. G. Holt and D. C. Mabbott. 
