LABRADOR DUCK. 



pORMERLY not an uncommon bird along the At- 

 lantic coast as far south as Delaware, the Labrador 

 Duck has, for over twenty years, ceased to make its ap- 

 pearance anywhere within our boundaries, and it would 

 seem that, from some reason quite inexplicable, it has be- 

 come extinct. The Pied Duck, as it was sometimes called, 

 fifty years ago was said to be frequently offered for sale m 

 the markets, hanging among strings of other species of 

 Ducks. It was not known to Wilson, and Audubon never 

 saw it alive; the birds from which he made his draw- 

 ing having been killed by Daniel Webster on Vineyard 

 Island, coast of Massachusetts. This pair is now in the 

 collection of the National Museum at Washington. 

 Very little is really known about the habits of this species. 

 There are no authentic accounts of its nest or eggs, and 

 it is doubtful if anyone, save perhaps an Eskimo, has ever 

 seen either one or the other. John W. Audubon had 

 several deserted nests shown him at Blanc Sablon, Lab- 

 rador, as belonging to this Duck, but he saw no indi- 

 viduals, and it may be seriously doubted if the Labrador 

 Duck ever had anything to do with them. 



Fifty years ago, according to Giraud, this bird, 

 known to the gunners of Long Island as the Skunk 

 Duck, on account of its peculiar black and white 

 markings, was even then very rare. The people of 

 the New Jersey coast called it " Sand-shoal Duck." It 

 was said to feed on shell-fish, which it procured by diving. 

 Between i860 and 1870 I saw at various times a con- 



