SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 415 



breeding species in that region, may have hastened the 

 extinction of the Labrador Duck. 



When the Magdalen Islands were discovered, great herds 

 of walrus resorted there; but to-day the fact that the walrus 

 was once numerous in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is almost 

 forgotten. We do not know the cause of the extermination 

 of the species there, but practically, it is certain that it was 

 extirpated by man. The fact that the Labrador Duck was 

 well known to gunners, and was found in some numbers 

 in the markets, indicates that many were once shot along our 

 coasts. Col. Nicolas Pike relates that in November, 1844, 

 while paddling in his sneak boat covered with salt hay at the 

 south end of Plum Island, Ipswich Bay, he saw three of 

 these birds, two males and a female, feeding on a shoal spot 

 near a sand spit. He shot them all.^ This indicates that the 

 birds were taken easily by an expert gunner. 



Dr. Elliot says that no satisfactory explanation of the 

 extinction of the Labrador Duck can be given, and yet he 

 says, on the same page: "While we marvel at the disappear- 

 ance of this bird from our fauna, similar or equally forcible 

 methods are at work, which in the process of time, and short 

 time too, will cause many another species of our water fowl 

 to vanish from our lakes and rivers, and along the coasts of 

 our continent. Robbing the nests for all manner of purposes, 

 from that of making the eggs an article of commerce to pos- 

 ing as specimens in cabinets, slaying the ducklings before 

 they are able to fly, and have no means of escape from the 

 butchers, together with the never-ceasing slaughter from the 

 moment the young are able to take wing and start on their 

 migration, at all times, in all seasons and in every place, until 

 the few remaining have returned to their summer home, all 

 combined, are yearly reducing their ranks with a fearful 

 rapidity, and speedily hastening the time when, so far as our 

 water fowl are concerned, the places that now know them, 

 and echo with their pleasant voices, shall know them no more 

 forever." ^ 



1 Dutchor, William: Auk, 1891, p. 206. 



2 Elliot, Daniel Giraud: The Wild Fowl of North America, 1S98, p. 174. 



