DAMAOK to KIC£ by wild ducks. 
From reports received It eoooied that oonsiderahle daniage «&s doiM 
In the rioefields by duoke during wet seasons. When the fall months were 
dry the orop was threshed soon after it was out and shocked.. On some years 
however excessive rainfall' had made access to the fields difficult or even 
Impossible and at times rice was exposed in the fields until Jaxniary. Un- 
der suoh oironmstances wild duoke feeding in the fields- destroyed a large 
part of the crop* especially where the rioefields were partly flooded. 
t 
Where rioe has remained long In the field it must however be considered a 
total loss as it would be of no 'value when threohed even If not molested 
by birds. The fall of 1913 was exceptionally wet and hi^ water had 
t 
flooded many of the fields. Ducks then were said to have eaten much rice 
but since bad done little damage except in a few looel instances. In the 
course of ordinary years the entire rioe crop would be under shelter be- 
foi*a ducks came in in any numbers from the Forth and any depredations would 
be restricted to local birds. 
Some growers stated that Blue-winged Teal and ’'Stnnmer Ducks’* lived 
, I 
I 
in the riceflelds during late sunaer and that in some instances they did ' ^ 
some damage to rioe. (The ’’Summer Duck" is apparently Anas falvlaula 
maouloBa though in part this naoae nay refer to an undesorlbe^TlI^lard of 
u 
which there are specimens in the Hational Uuseum taken near Port Clark, 
. * 
Texas.) Suoh damage is however apparently slight and amounts to little. 
Most of the rioe growers ^uestionsd did not consider it of Inqportanoe. 
areas in the lowlaade along the Colorado hlver were reported as more sub- 
Jeot to suoh damage than fields looatsd farther inland. 
