Labrador Duck {CumptorhyudiHs lahnidor'ms) 



K.ini^f. — l'<irnK-rIy, iiortluni Atlaiilic coasts; supposi-d to ha\r hrnl in Labra- 

 dor; wintcrf(l from Xova Scotia south to New Jersey. 



The Labrador Dueks histor) is shrcnided in mystery. It is now kiunvii to lie 

 extinct but of the causes of its (hsapjjearauce we kiKJW Httle or iKjthinj^. ( )ccupy- 

 injj^ as it (h<l such a restricted ran<,'e. the l)ird was ]>robably never abundant, at 

 least in historic times. Many years a^o ( ieorge X. Lawrence told me that in his 

 recollection, somewhere probably about 1S5(). it was by no means uncommon in 

 I'uiton .Market, and no one at that time appiar> to have suspected that the bird 

 was in any particular danj^'er of extinction, .\pparently its habits were th(j>e of 

 a sea duck, and as it could have possessed no ^reat value for the table there would 

 seem to have been no particular incentive for its ])ursuit. We know so little about 

 the bird that speculation as to the cause of its extinction is useless but, as sug- 

 gested by I'orbush, the slaughter of waterfowl on the Labrador coast in the 

 eighteenth century may have had much to do with it. The lesson to be drawn from 

 its fate is that if a game bird like the Labrador Duck can become extinct in historic 

 times from no assignable cause we should be doubly careful not to reduce the 

 numbers of any of our valuable game birds to a point which threatens their future, 

 since when reduced beyond certain limits, the precise limits being as yet unknown, 

 recovery seems to be impossible, as witness the history of the passenger pigeon 

 and the Eskimo curlew. 



So far as known, the last Labrador Duck seen alive by man was taken at 

 Grand Menan on the Maine coast in 187L Fortunately, some forty-odd speci- 

 mens are known to be in museums and in private collections. 



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