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DAMAGE TO RICE BY WILD DUCKS

From reports received it seemed that considerable damage was done in the ricefields by ducks during wet seasons. When the fall months were dry the crop was threshed soon after it was cut 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 January. Under such circumstances wild ducks feeding in the fields destroyed a large part of the crop, especially where the ricefields were partly flooded. Where rice has remained long in the field it must however be considered a total loss as it would be of no value when threshed even if not molested by birds. The fall of 1913 was exceptionally wet and high water had flooded many of the fields. Ducks then were said to have eaten much Rice but since had done little damage except in a few local instances. In the course of ordinary years the entire rice crop would be under shelter before ducks came in any numbers from the North and any depredations would be restricted to local Birds.

Some growers stated that Blue-winged Teal and "Summer Ducks" lived in the ricefields during late summer and that in some instances they did damage to rice. (The "Summer Duck" is apparently [[underlined]] Anas fulvigula maculosa [[/underlined]] though in part this name may refer to an undescribed ^[[form of]] Mallard of which there are specimens in the National Museum taken near Fort Clark, Texas.) Such damage is however apparently slight and amounts to little. Most of the rice growers questioned did not consider it of importance. Areas in the lowlands among the Colorado River were reported as more subject to such damage than fields located farther inland.