6 Dutcher on the Labrador Duck. V\ln 



The specimens referred to above are as follows : The Cory 

 specimens, formerly the Boardman specimens, 1S57 to x S6o; the 

 Brewster specimen, 1S57 ; the Herrick specimen, 1S71 ; and the 

 Gregg specimen, 187S. This last specimen I make no claim for 

 now, nor did I in my list. My statement there was '''•specimens 

 recorded, since lost." If the Gregg specimen had not been 

 before recorded in a scientific journal of acknowledged good 

 standing 1 I should not have included it in my list on the evidence 

 furnished. 



Regarding the Herrick specimen, however, no such doubt can 

 possibly exist and the record can but stand, although the spec- 

 imen was unfortunately lost. My previous quotations from Mr. 

 Cheney, who shot the duck on the Island of Grand Manan, from 

 Mr. Herrick, who received the skin from Mr. Cheney, and from 

 Mr. Boardman, into whose possession it finally passed, were 

 necessarily brief. Since then, however, I have had further cor- 

 respondence ami interviews about this specimen, the chief points 

 of which I submit herewith. Mr. Cheney could furnish no further 

 information regarding the specimen, but very kindly presented 

 me with an autograph letter written to him by the late Prof. 

 Spencer F. Baird, from which I epiote as follows: ''Wood's 

 Holl, Mass., June 22, 1S71. My Dear Mr. Cheney: Mr. 

 Boardman has just informed me that you have sent him a female 

 of the Pied Duck, which he would forward to us if we wanted it. 

 As we do not possess a specimen in the Smithsonian Museum, I 

 very promptly informed him that the specimen would be very 

 acceptable." 



Mr. Herrick verifies the date ( 1S71 ) by the following statement : 

 "In May, 1S71, I was collecting about Grand Manan Island and 

 stopped at the house of Simeon F. Cheney, a fisherman and 

 gunner with an excellent knowledge of local birds. I obtained 

 from him some shins, among them this duck which he had shot 

 a few weeks before. It was the only one he had ever seen. 

 Although I had at the time a very fair knowledge of our ducks, 

 it was new to me. In returning home I left my traps at Eastport, 

 Maine, and went to Calais, to visit Mr. Geo. A. Boardman. He 

 was much interested in this duck and so anxious to obtain it that 



1 American Naturalist, Vol. XIII, p. 128, February, 1879. 



