Vol. XI~| Dutcher on the Labrador Duck. J 



on my return to Eastport I sent it to him. He at once wrote to 

 me that it was a female Labrador Duck and that he had sent it to 

 John Wallace, of New York, to be mounted for the Smithsonian." 



The above facts seem to me to be conclusive as to the date ; 

 now as to the identification. No ornithologist who is acquainted 

 with Mr. Boardman can doubt for a moment his ability to identify 

 any specimen of the American Anatidae, especially so exceptional 

 a species as Camptolaimus labradorius, and further, at the time, 

 he had in his collection a specimen of the female Labrador Duck 

 with which to compare it. Under such circumstances the veriest 

 tyro could make a positive identification. That so careful a nat- 

 uralist as Professor Baird had no doubt on the subject his letter 

 quoted above would seem to indicate, and our ex-President, Mr. 

 Elliot, tells me that he considers Mr. Boardman as able to iden- 

 tify a Labrador Duck as any one of us, and that he would accept 

 what he said of the 1871 specimen without question. To still 

 further fortify the good standing of this specimen I quote from 

 Mr. Boardman, who says, "lam positive about it; I had my own 

 pair and would have known the bird as soon as I would a Crow." 



Regarding the Brewster specimen (1857) : While I have no 

 further evidence to offer as to the date, yet it seems unreasonable 

 to doubt the correctness of the label, which was probably written 

 at a time when there would be no object to be gained by falsi- 

 fying it. One of its previous owners, William P. Turnbull, 

 LL. D., 1 evidently knew that it was rare, even in 1857, for in his 

 'Birds of East Pennsylvania and New Jersey,' published in 1S69, 

 he so states. 



Regarding the Cory-Boardman specimen : No additional light 

 can at present be thrown on the male bird, but I have fortunately 

 been able to trace out the history of the female specimen by the 

 aid of Mr. Boardman and Mr. N. Vickary, of Lynn, Mass. 

 Shortly after the 'Revised List' appeared Mr. Vickary wrote to 

 Mr. Boardman asking whether he, Mr. Boardman, had not 

 purchased from him, in the early sixties, a specimen of the 

 female Labrador Duck, and related the circumstances. Subse- 

 quently I obtained from Mr. Vickary the following information 

 which fixes beyond doubt the date of the capture. "In 1862, I 



1 In my 'Revised List' the name is incorrectly printed "Trumbull" instead of "Turn- 

 bull." • 



