ANIMALS RECENTLY EXTINCT- 637 



Jersey, used to take them like fishes on a long line baited with mus- 

 sels. When interest in ornithology became more general, and collectors 

 ami collections multiplied, it soon became evident that the Labrador 

 Duck was extremely rare, and it is now believed to have become en- 

 tirely extinct, no example having been taken since December, 1S78. It 

 is a little difficult to understand why the Labrador Duck should have 

 disappeared, for the bird was possessed of good powers of flight, bred 

 in comparatively unfrequented localities at the north, and, as just 

 stated, was not especially sought after. Some epidemic may have swept 

 oft* the greater part of the race, but this is purely supposititious, as 

 nothing of the kind is known to have occurred. That epidemics do 

 (occur among birds is shown by Dr. Stejueger's account of the Pelagic 

 ICormorant (Phalacrocorax pelagicus) of the Commander Islands, thous- 

 ands upon thousands of which died during the winter of 1876-'77, so 

 that masses of dead birds covered the beach all around the islands. As 

 this bird formed an important article of food during the time of year 

 when the fur seal is not slain, fears were entertained by the residents 

 iof the island that the bird might become extinct, like Pallas Cormorant. 

 | But although the birds were scarce during the summer of 1877, their 

 numbers have since increased, although they have never attained their 

 former abundance. A possible cause for the original depletion may 

 have been the taking of eggs by the Indians, for the Eider, which breeds 

 alohg the southern coast of Labrador, suffers severely from their dep- 

 redations. A small dog is trained to hunt through the bushes near 

 the water's edge, the favorite nesting place of the Eider, while his 

 master silently paddles along close to the shore to note just where a bird 

 is driven from the nest, and in this manner many eggs are taken. Now 

 if the Labrador Ducks bred over a comparatively small extentof country, 

 near the summer camp of a baud of Indians, their original decrease 

 would be readily accounted for. Dr. Stejneger has so clearly shown 

 ( Stand. Nat. Hist., Vol. IV. Birds, p. 151) how the extinction of this or 

 other species might have come about that the account is here quoted in 

 full: 



It seems to be a fact that when a migratory species has reached a certaiu low num- 

 ber of individuals, the rapidity witli which it goes towards extinction is considerably 

 increased. 



Two circumstances may tend toward this result. We know that when birds on 

 their migrations get astray, having lost their route aud comrades, they are nearly 

 always doomed to destruction, that fate not only overtaking single iudividuals, but 

 also large flocks to the last member. 



If the safety of the wanderers, therefore, greatly depends upon their keeping their 

 correct route, the safety decreases disproportionately the scarcer the species become, 

 since, if the route is .poorly frequented, the younger and inexperienced travelers 

 have less chance of following 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 uumber will be reduced to a few colonies, and the 

 species, consequently in danger of extinction, aud a casualty, which, under ordi- 

 nary circumstances, would only affect a fraction of the members, now may easily 

 prove fatal to the remainder of the species. 



