DUCKS. 



her young. In another instance the cooking of n family had to be done in a tem- 

 porary kitchen, as a fanciful bird had taken up her abode on the fireplace. 



Nearly related to the eiders is one of our North American sea-ducks, the history 

 of which is extremely interesting. We refer to the Labrador duck ( Camptolaimus 

 labradorius), which, to all appearance, is now extinct, or at least very nearly so, since 

 no capture of a specimen has been reported since December, 1878, while during the 

 preceding ten years scarcely more than half a dozen birds were obtained. Altogether 

 only three dozen specimens are preserved in collections, of which eleven are in Europe, 

 the remainder in North America. The Labrador duck, consequently, is twice as rare 

 in museums as the great-auk. As it was a good flyer, the circumstances which led to 

 its destruction must have been quite different from those extinguishing the auk. 

 Within historical times its distribution seems to have been very limited (the north- 

 eastern Atlantic coast, presumably breeding in Labrador and migrating southwards in 

 winter as far as the Chesapeake), but it has always been comparatively rare, even at 

 the time of Wilson. It is difficult to say what ultimately brought on their extermina- 

 tion, and the suggestion of an epizooty may be as good as any, but I would submit 

 another possibility. It seems to be a fact that when a migratory species has reached 

 a certain low number of individuals, the rapidity with which it goes towards extinction 

 is considerably increased. Two circumstances may tend towards this result. We 

 know that when birds on their migrations get astray, having lost their route and com- 

 rades, they are nearly always doomed to destruction, that fate not only overtaking 

 single individuals, but also large flocks to the last member. If the safety of the wan- 

 derers, therefore, greatly depends upon their keeping their correct route, then safety 

 decreases disproportionately the scarcer the species becomes, since, if the route is 

 poorly frequented, the younger and inexperienced travelers have less chance of fol- 

 lowing the right track, and more chance of getting lost, and consequently destroyed. 

 The fewer the individuals, the more disconnected become the breeding localities, the 

 more difficult for the birds to find each other and form flocks in the fall. Finally, 

 the number will be reduced to a few colonies, and the species, consequently, in danger 

 of extinction, since a casualty Avhich under ordinary circumstances only would affect 

 a fraction of the members, now may easily prove fatal to all the remainders of the 

 species. We need only suppose that during one unfortunate year nearly all the 

 broods were destroyed by inundations, fires, or frost, to perceive what difficulty the 

 few birds left in the autumn would have in winding their way without getting astray. 

 We know that the proportion of birds returning in spring is comparatively small, and 

 the flocks are considerably thinned down. Under the circumstances presumed, 

 there will hardly be birds left to form flocks. But birds used to migrate in flocks do 

 not like to or cannot travel alone ; hence they are forced to follow flocks of allied 

 species, which may take them to localities far from their home. In that way a few 

 scattered pairs may survive, and breed here and there, a number of years after the 

 rest are destroyed, and such survivors are probably those few Labrador ducks which 

 have been captured occasionally during the last twenty years or more. There is ;i 

 possibility that a few such pairs may still be in existence, but, however hardy, their 

 fate is sealed, and perhaps not a single one will get into the hands of a naturalist. 



Well may the Erismaturina3 be called quasi-cosmopolitan. The group, which is 

 related to the sea-ducks, in reality belongs to the same category as Jtostratnla, Sarki- 

 diornis, etc., having one or a few ' aberrant ' representatives in South America, Austra- 

 lia, and South Africa, in this case somewhat modified, as no species is found in India, 



