DUCKS. 151 



her young. In another instance the cooking of a family had to be done in a tem- 

 porary kitclicn, as a fanciful bird had taken uj) her abode on the fireplace. 



Nearly related to the eiders is one of our North American sea-ilucks, the history 

 of which is extremely interesting. We refer to the Labrador duck {Camf)tolaimiis 

 labr<uIorius), which, to all apjaearance, is now extinct, or at least very nearly so, since 

 no cajiture of a si)ecimen has been reported since December, 1878, while during tlic 

 preceding ten years scarcely more than half a dozen birds were obtained. Altogether 

 only three dozen specimens are preserved in collections, of which eleven are in Europe, 

 the remainder in North America. The Labrador duck, conse<]uently, is twice as rare 

 in museums as the great-auk. As it was a good flyer, the circumstances which led to 

 its destruction must have been quite <lifferent from those extinguishing the auk. 

 Within historical times its distribution seems to have been very limited (the north- 

 eastern Atlantic coast, presumably breeding in Labrador and migrating southwards in 

 winter as far as the Chesapeake), but it has always been comparatively rare, even at 

 the time of Wilson. It is difficult to say what ultimately brought on their extermina- 

 tion, and the suggestion of an epizooty may be as good as any, but I would submit 

 another possibility. It seems to be a fact that when a migratory sjjecies has reached 

 a certain low number of individuals, the rapidity with which it goes towards extinction 

 is considerably increased. Two circumstances may tend towards this result. Wo 

 know that when birds on their migrations get astray, having lost their route and com- 

 rades, they are nearly always doomed to destruction, that fate not only overtaking 

 single individuals, but also lai-ge flocks to the last member. If the safety of the wan- 

 derers, therefore, greatly depemls upon their keeping their correct route, then safety 

 decreases disproportionately the scarcer the sj)ecies becomes, since, if the route is 

 })oorly frequented, the younger and inexperienced travelers have less chance of fol- 

 lowing the right track, and more chance of getting lost, and eonsecjuently destroyed. 

 Tlie fewer the individuals, the more disconnected become the breeding localities, the 

 more difficult tor tiie birds to find each other and form flocks in the fall. Finally, 

 the number will l)e reduced to a few colonies, and the s]iecies, conseipiently, in danger 

 of extinction, since a casualty which under ordinary circumstances only would affect 

 a fraction of the members, now may easily prove fatal to all the remainders of the 

 species. We need only suppose that during one imfortunate year nearly all the 

 broods were destroyed by inundations, fires, or frost, to perceive what difficult}- the 

 few birds left in the autumn would have in winding their way without getting astray. 

 We know that the proportion of birds returning in spring is comparatively small, and 

 the flocks are considerably thinned down. Under the circumstances ))resunied, 

 there will hanlly be birds left to form flocks. But birds used to migrate in flocks do 

 not like to or cannot travel alone ; hence they are forced to follow flocks of allied 

 species, which may take them to localities far from their home. In that way a few 

 scattered ]iairs may sin-vive, and breed here ami there, a nund)er of years after the 

 rest are destroyed, and such survivors are probably those few Labrador ducks which 

 have been cajitured occasionally during the last twenty years or more. There is a 

 possibility that a few such pairs may still l)e in existence, but, however hardy, their 

 fate is sealed, and perha])s not a single one will get into the hands of a naturalist. 



Well may the Erismaturina- be called quasi-cosmopolitan. The grou]), which is 

 related to the sea-ducks, in reality belongs to the same category as Rostratula, Sarki- 

 (lioniig, etc., having t>ne or a few ' aberrant ' representatives in South America, Austr.a- 

 lia, and South .^yrica, in this case somewhat modified, as no species is found in Indiii, 



