iSt^ 1 ! Dutcher on the Labrador Duck. Q 



Mr. Bell's specimen in the Smithsonian was purchased for 

 that institution by Mr. Lawrence. He says of it: "I remember 

 perfectly the Labrador Duck, male juv., bought from J. G. Bell 

 for the Smithsonian in the fall of 1S79; I think Bell's note on the 

 label, 'Fall of 1875,' must be accepted as the time of its capture. 

 This case is unimpeachable and changes Professor Newton's date 

 materially." 



The Pike record 1 is as follows: "In 185S one solitary male 

 came to my battery in Great South Bay, Long Island, near 

 Qiiogue, and settled among my stools." Col. Pike is a sports- 

 man with a scientific knowledge of birds and was the donor of 

 the specimen of the Labrador Duck now in the Museum of the 

 Long Island Historical Society, 2 and also of the major portion of 

 their whole collection. It will be noted that Col. Pike states 

 that the bird lit among his stools, and he therefore had an oppor- 

 tunity for positive identification. As he was fully acquainted 

 with the species there can be no reasonable doubt of its correct- 

 ness. 



The records above given extend without any possible doubt 

 the date of the latest capture of a specimen of the Labrador Duck 

 nearly a quarter of a century, i. e., to 1S75, and thus brings the 

 species much nearer to the present time than the readers of the 

 'Dictionary of Birds' would be led to believe. 



In this connection Mr. Lawrence suggested to me a very 

 pertinent enquiry regarding the extinction of the species when he 

 was giving me the information about the young male specimen 

 taken on Long Island, N. Y., in the fall of 1875, and now in the 

 Smithsonian Institution. It was, "Where were the parents of 

 the juvenile?" That two old birds were alive somewhere in 

 1875 is certain and possibly some additional young, as one off- 

 spring is a small brood. That many species of birds do not have 

 more than one or two offspring in a season is well known, 

 yet this does not obtain with the Anatidae, which are usually 

 prolific breeders. It is true that nothing whatever is known 

 of the breeding habits of this species, yet allied species lay as 

 many as five eggs in a clutch. 



•Auk, Vol. VIII, p. 216. 2 Auk, Vol. X, p. 268. 



