iSoi-l DuTCHKR ()// the [Aibrador Dnch. 20^ 



In the Rowlev List the Vassal" collection is also credited with 

 the possession of an adult female Labrador Duck. This is unfor- 

 tunately not a fact. There is no evidence of any kind indicating 

 that there ever was but one Labrador Duck in the Giraud collec- 

 tion. 



Correspondence by Prof. Dwight witli Mrs. Tenney, the widow 

 of Professor Sanborn Tenney, his predecessor in charge of the 

 Vassar collection, elicited only the statement that " it is out of the 

 question to suppose that Prof. Tenney could ever have exchanged 

 so valuable a bird as the Labrador Duck from the collection." 

 Prof. Dwight concludes with the following note : " I seem, there- 

 fore, to have exhausted all known sources of personal or documen- 

 tary -.iformation. So as it stands, our official list, clearly made 

 out, credits the College with only one specimen, the male. The 

 Rowley List credits the College wit!i two specimens. In the ab- 

 sence of corroborative evider.ce for the Rowley List, and of only 

 the foct that one specimen alone now exists in the collection, the 

 presumption is entirely in favor of a clerical error in the Rowley 

 List, or of an error on the part of the informant. It is certain that 

 V^assar College is not given to ^exchanges,' certainly not of its 

 valuable birds which were given by Giraud to remain as far as 

 possible a complete representation. We have had offers of pur- 

 chase or exchange at high prices, but have uniformly and imme- 

 diately declined." 



Collection of the University of the State of New York, New 

 York State Museum, Albany. 



$ adiilt. " The male Labrador Duck (Pied Duck) listed on 

 page 38 of the Catalogue of the De Rham Collection (4th Ann. 

 Report) is still in our collection, but we have no data concerning 

 it. For information concerning the De Rham collection I refer 

 you to the 3d and 4th Annual Reports of the State Cabinet." 



9 adult. " The other specimen of Labrador Duck in our 

 collection is a female, and after a careful search into its history I 

 have come to the conclusion that it was in the State Cabinet when 

 De Kay prepared his report on Birds.* Our Annual Reports 

 record but two Labrador Ducks, viz., the male in the De Rham 

 collection, and one specimen (sex not stated) catalogued in the ist 



*Zoology of New York. Part 2. Birds. By James E. De Kay. Albany, 1844, 

 p. 326. 



