326 PIED, OR LABRADOR DUCK.—DOWNS. 
Arr. XII. —PIED, oR LABRADOR, Wael —By ANDREW Downs, 
M. Z.’S: ; 
(Read May 10, 1886.) 
DALHOUSIE Coilege Museum contains a very rare pair of birds, - 
which have now become extinct, the Pied, or Labrador, Duck. 
They were presented by the Rev. Dr. MacCulloch, of Truro, with 
his late brotber’s collection. Attached to them was this label— 
Family, Anatina; Brisson, Genus; Fulizula; Fulizula ee 
Lath. Pied Dee Male and Tiegh Wey rare. 
Audubon’s description of this bird is given in Vol. 7, page 40, 
as follows: “Although no birds of this species occurred to meé 
when I was in Lepmeoe my son, John Woodhouse, and the 
young friends who accompanied him on the 28th of July, ieee 
to Blane Sablon, found, placed on the top of the low tangled fir 
bushes, several deserted nests, which, from the report. of the 
English clerk of the fishing establishment there, we learned ‘to 
belong to the Pied Duck. They had much the appearance of 
those of the Hider Duck, being very large, formed externally of 
fir twigs, internally of dried grass, and lined with down. It 
would thus seem that the Pied Duck breeds earlier than most of 
its tribe. It is surprising that this species is not mentioned by 
Dr. Richardson in the Fauna Boreali Americana, as it is a very 
hardy bird, and is met with aloug the coasts of Nova Scotia, 
Maine, and’ Massachusetts, during the most severe cold of winter. 
My friend Professor MacCulloch, of Pictou, has procured several 
in his immediate neighbourhood; and the Honorable Daniel 
Webster, of Boston, sent me a fine pair killed by himself, on the 
Vineyard Islands, on the coast of Massachusetts, from which I 
made the drawing for the plate before you. The female has not, 
I believe, been hitherto figured ; yet the represented was not an 
old bird.” 
Wilson’s description of this bird, written about 60 years ago, 
