174 WATER FOWL. 



no explanation can be given that is satisfactory. It is 

 one of those inexpHcable phenomena that occasionally 

 arise to perplex and baffle the best informed person. As 

 a bird for the table, as might have been expected from its 

 choice of food, it was not very desirable, being fishy and 

 of a strong flavor; evidently only on a par with the usual 

 run of Sea-Ducks. About forty specimens only are 

 known to be preserved in all North America, and not half 

 that number in all Europe. The finest collection of these 

 birds in the world is in the New York Museum of 

 Natural History, where seven adult males, females, and 

 young males are to be seen. Five have been artistically 

 mounted in a group with characteristic surroundings of 

 ice and water (for it was a cold-weather bird), forming 

 one of the rarest and most valuable ornaments in the pos- 

 session of the museum. While we marvel at the disap- 

 pearance of this bird from our fauna, similar or equally 

 forcible methods are at work, which in the process of 

 time, and short time too, will cause many another species 

 of our Water Fowl to vanish from our lakes and rivers, 

 and along the coasts of our continent. Robbing the 

 nests for all manner of purposes, from that of making the 

 eggs an article of commerce or posing as specimens in 

 cabinets, slaying the ducklings before they are able to fly 

 and have no means of escape from the butchers, to- 

 gether with the never ceasing slaughter from the moment 

 the young are able to take wing and start on their migra- 

 tion, at all times, in all seasons, and in every place, until 

 the few remaining have returned to their summer home, 

 all combined, are yearly reducing their ranks with a fear- 

 ful rapidity, and speedily hastening the time when, so 

 far as our Water Fowl are concerned, the places that now 

 know them, and echo with their pleasant voices, shall 

 know them no more forever. 



