712 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. xx, 1911. 
Wild Duck Foods. 
A paper by W. L. McAtee, recently issued by 
the Bureau of Biological Survey, of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, is of great interest to all 
duck shooters, as well as to ornithologists. It 
deals with three important water plants, all of 
them long recognized as foods on which wild¬ 
fowl very greatly depend especially in autumn 
and winter. These three are: Wild rice, wild 
celery and the pond weeds. The two first have 
long been recognized by gunners as of high 
value in attracting wildfowl, but about the pond 
weeds much less is generally known. 
It is wild rice that has been chiefly experi¬ 
mented with as a duck food. The plant is very 
familiar to gunners in the Northern country 
from Eastern Canada as far west as the Red 
River of the North. Many efforts have been 
made to introduce the plant at various points, 
but with no' great success, when we consider 
the amount of thought, labor and money ex¬ 
pended. This has been true partly because the 
wild rice readily loses its vitality. Of recent 
years experiments have shown that there is no 
difficulty in making the rice grow, provided it 
is properly treated. 
About wild celery very much less is known 
by the general public, because it grows wholly 
out of sight. Moreover there are two or three 
other water plants having ribbon-like leaves 
which may readily be confounded with it. Wild¬ 
fowl eat all parts of the celery plant, but the 
winter buds and the root stock are especially 
favored by the wildfowl. It will be recalled that 
a year or two ago Dr. B. W. Evermann wrote 
for Forest and Stream an interesting paoer 
dealing with the way in which coots and other 
waterfowl secured the wild celery buds. It 
used to be supposed that wild celery grew only 
in the vicinity of the Chesapeake Bay, but this 
myth was long ago exploded, and it is known 
that the plant grows from Central Minnesota 
through the Great Lake region to Northern 
Nova Scotia, and from Eastern Kansas and 
Eastern Texas east to the Atlantic Coast. 
Like wild rice, wild celery has often been 
propagated and in widely separated regions. 
Either the seeds of the winter buds, or the 
transportation of the roots may be the means 
of introducing it. Like the rice, the seeds, buds 
or plants must not be allowed to become dry 
or to ferment between gathering and planting. 
A slow current of water from three to four 
feet deep, with a muddy bottom, is the best 
place to plant it. 
Mr. McAtee gives a list of sixteen species of 
our best known wildfowl, and it has been learned 
by examination of the stomachs that nearly 
14 per cent, of the food of this bird consists of 
pond weeds, while wild rice represents a little 
more than 6 l / 2 per cent., and wild celery a little 
more than 434 per cent. These calculations are 
drawn from examinations of about 1,150 duck 
stomachs. The author of the paper believes 
that the great preponderance of pond weeds in 
the food of these ducks arises not so much from 
the fact that it is a favorite food of the fowl, 
as that its distribution is so> much wider than 
either the wild rice or the wild celery. These 
pond weeds, besides the long thread-like spread¬ 
ing leaves on which the ducks feed largely, 
bears also on its roots abundant small tubers 
sometimes as large as a grain of corn, and 
these tubers and the seeds with the leaves are 
eaten by the ducks. 
There is no difficulty in transplanting these 
pond weeds, and Dwight Lydell, of the Michi¬ 
gan State Fish Hatchery, says that he has suc¬ 
ceeded in propagating them by means of seeds 
and whole plants. 
Among the enemies of these plants, the most 
serious in regions where that fish is found ap¬ 
pears to be carp. According to reports by one 
observer these fish are “probably in large part, 
at least, responsible for the great destruction 
of wild celery and wild rice that has been noted 
in many of our inland marshes in the last few 
years. This in turn has deprived certain ducks, 
especially the canvasback and redhead, of an 
important food supply, and has undoubtedly in¬ 
fluenced their abundance to some extent in the 
localities in question.” 
It is concluded that the best time to sow 
these plants is in spring, but that pond weeds 
which have been moved and wild celery pods— 
this means the seed of either plant—may be dis¬ 
tributed in the fall. Pond weed seeds and wild 
rice may be sown broadcast as soon as the 
water reaches a temperature of from 50 to 60 
degrees F. Wild celery plants should be set out 
in May or June. 
Mr. McAtee’s paper is illustrated by a number 
of figures showing the various plants and their 
parts, and by three maps indicating the ranges 
of wild rice and wild celery, and one of the 
pond weeds, each with points marked where the 
plant has been successfully introduced. The 
paper is one which ought to be in the hands of 
every man who has charge of a wildfowl pre¬ 
serve. It is circular No. 81 of the bureau. 
Federal Bird Protection. 
New York City, Oct. 29.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The one sure way to defeat the 
Anthony-Weeks bill is for the putative friends 
of the measure to go about looking for lions and 
elephants in the way, and learned by pointing out 
supposedly insurmountable obstacles. 
It is not strange for Southern lawyers to raise 
the question of State rights on the Weeks bill, 
for that old fetish has long been held sacred in 
the South; but why should a man of Vermont 
go out looking for bogies, and parade them be¬ 
fore the friends of wild life? Difficult measures 
are not put through by men who are taking coun¬ 
sel of their fears, and I regret to see a man 
like Harry Chase solemnly announcing that the 
Weeks bill would be unconstitutional, and clos¬ 
ing the whole matter up on that basis. 
A great many wise men have lost out on the 
supposed unconstitutionality of laws for the 
preservation of wild life. For example: No. 1, 
the Lacey law, in the United States Supreme 
Court; No. 2, the Pennsylvania law against the 
automatic gun; No. 3, the law of the same State 
against the ownership of arms by aliens. The 
attorneys for the game dealers of New York 
were sure the importation of foreign game could 
not be prohibited, but they were wrong. 
To assume that the Federal Government shall 
not be premitted to take any active interest in 
the preservation of the bird life that is so im¬ 
portant to the agricultural interests of this na¬ 
tion is nonsense. Anyone who knows what con¬ 
ditions are in the South must know very well 
that under no circumstances will the people of 
those States, unaided, put enough paid game 
wardens into the field to really suppress the kill¬ 
ing of migratory birds by the negroes and others. 
If the Federal Government does not take hold of 
the matter, the negroes of the South will infalli¬ 
bly wipe out the birds that specially protect our 
Northern crops and forests. 
The passage of the Weeks-Anthony bill is a 
national necessity. The duty that devolves upon 
the American people is to ask Congress to pass 
the bill, and ask it with cheerful confidence that 
it will be done. It is a “war measure,” just as 
much as was the creation of greenbacks in 1861. 
If there are any men in the North who, in the 
plenitude of their wisdom, think, or “know,” 
that the law would be unconstitutional, then 
silence on their part would be golden. If there 
are any men in the South who are troubled in 
the same way, they should for once shut their 
eyes to the State’s rights fetish, and facilitate 
the passage of the bill. We in the ranks can 
well afford—for once—to leave to Congress the 
whole question of constitutionality. Our busi¬ 
ness as protectors of wild life is to work for the 
passage of the Anthony bill, not to strangle it 
in its cradle. 
The Weeks-Anthony bill is a national neces¬ 
sity, and a failure to pass it would be a national 
calamity. Our duty now is to stop knocking, and 
line up for the campaign. 
William T. Hornaday. 
Newfoundland Moose. 
St. Johns, N. F., Nov. 1. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Several years ago, it will be remem¬ 
bered, the Newfoundland Government imported 
moose from Canada and set them loose in the 
interior of the island. Nothing has been heard 
from them for some time. Two years ago G. 
Nichols reported that he had seen signs of some 
on the upper Humber, and now word comes that 
some have been seen in the Gander country. 
It would appear that the original herd broke 
up and dispersed, as it is not likely that those 
seen on the Gander are the same reported from 
the Humber. 
It is probable that the herd is increasing and 
multiplying in small herds at different places; 
if so, these noble animals will be a great addi¬ 
tion to our game resources. If in a few years 
we can offer to the sportsmen moose as well as 
our present herds of caribou, Newfoundland will 
enjoy the rare distinction of being the only re¬ 
maining big-game country in America where the 
hunter can get good sport cheap and easy. 
The following dipping from last evening’s 
Chronicle will be read with interest: 
“T. R. Remsen, C.E., of New York, who is 
now at Glenwood, writes as follows: 
“ ‘No doubt it will be interesting news for your 
paper that while my party were passing down 
the Grand River last Wednesday, half way be¬ 
tween Glenwood and Gander Bay, we passed 
within one hundred yards, of a big bull moose. 
He moved rapidly away when we came into view 
around a bend in the river.' There were three 
cows nearby him. These cows, I am told, wan¬ 
der up the river from Gander Bay during the 
summer in search of pasture. The moose had 
a great spread of horns, and as I believe it is 
some time since a moose has been seen in New- 
found’and, I am sending you this note.’ ” 
W. J. Carroll. 
