132 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



are well set forth in recent papers dealing with 

 the subject. 



The latest known living specimen was killed 

 in Halifax Harbor in the autumn of 1852, and it 

 is supposed that three others were obtained be- 

 tween that time and 1861. It is even rumored 

 that as late as 1878 individuals were captured. 

 The late George N. Lawrence of New York told 

 me that along about 1840 the Labrador duck was 

 exposed every winter for sale in Fulton Market, 

 New York, among other examples of sea-duckso 

 Mr. Akhurst, a taxidermist of Brooklyn, New 

 York, has also related to me that between the 

 years 1848 and 1850 he obtained several speci- 

 mens at different times which he shipped to natu- 

 ralists and collectors in England and Germany; 

 that it was not especially rare at the time, and 

 that no one then apprehended that the career of 

 this species was so near its termination. It must 

 be taken into account that the Labrador duck, 

 moreover, possessed great powers of flight, being 

 a migratory species which appeared regularly in 

 the waters about Long Island and on the coast 

 of New England, every winter. Besides, it was 

 so common that it was often found, as has been 

 shown, in the game bags of the gunners who 

 hunted for the market in those days. 



Allowing the possibility of individuals occurring 

 even as late as 1878, they are certainly the last 



