8 Dutcher on the Labrador Duck. f^ uk 



L Jan. 



took a trip to Labrador and on my return, one of the party, Mr. 

 Arthur Thomas, of Boston, was boarding at Swampscott and 

 while there shot this female duck in September. We returned 

 the first of that month, so it must have been about the first week 

 in September, iS62. When he brought the bird in I did not 

 think enough of it to stuff' it, so it lay several days on my floor ; 

 however, I did stuff' it, and Mr. Boardman called to see me and 

 bought it. I never had another specimen except the one referred 

 to." Mr. Vickary has within a few hours seen the specimen in 

 question in the collection of Mr. Chas. B. Cory and positively 

 states it to be the bird shot at Swampscott in September, 1S62, 

 and sold by him to Mr. Boardman. 



Professor Newton in quoting from my 'Revised List' either 

 overlooked certain other specimens of a later date than 1S52, or 

 else selected those that he considered the most doubtful. Those 

 omitted are as follows 1 : The Lawrence specimen in the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History, 1S65 (p. 205) ; the Elliot 

 specimen in the same institution (p. 20^) ; the Bell specimen in 

 the Smithsonian Institution, 1875 (p. 210) ; and the Pike record, 

 1858 (p. 216). 



Mr. Lawrence says of the specimen formerly owned by him : 

 "You can rely upon what I say about it. The date is correct." 



Mr. Elliot says of the specimens formerly in his collection, now 

 owned by the American Museum : "If Professor Newton says 

 that the last Labrador Duck ever taken was killed in 1S52, he is 

 certainly mistaken. I had several in the flesh at various times 

 during the ten years between 1S52 and 1862, mostly females and 

 immature males, and J. G. Bell had others, all obtained in the 

 old Washington Market. The female and young male in the 

 Museum were obtained in the flesh and prepared by Bell. I saw 

 them before they were skinned. Also the full plumaged male in 

 the Museum was procured from John Akhurst of Brooklyn ; it 

 was shot on Long Island, received by him in the flesh, and I saw 

 it. He made a skin of it for me. I never procured any Labrador 

 Ducks as early as 1S52, all having been received several years 

 after that date — I should say between 1S55 and 1S63." 



1 In this connection see 'Ornithological Miscellany' by Geo. Dawson Rowley, M. A., 

 etc., Part VI, Jan., 1877, pp. 212, 219, 220, in which he quotes certain American orni- 

 thologists, and gives dates later than 1852. 



