LABRADOR DUCK 



295 



IN .MKMOIt I A M 



"Ye have robbed . . . ye have slaughtered and made an end, 

 Take your ill-got plunder, and bury the dead" 



SiR HENRY NEWBOLT. 



Labrador Duck 



Camptorhynchus labradorius 

 (kam-to-ring-kus, Iab-ra-d6-ri-us) 

 SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Camptorhynchus, from Greek, kamptos, meaning flexible, and rhynchus, mean- 

 ing beak, referring to the leathery expansion of the bill; labradorius, Latinized 

 form, meaning of Labrador. 



The Labrador Duck is now extinct. No natural agency can be blamed for 

 the disappearance of this little duck, which was as well fitted to survive as any 

 other species. The evidence all points to its destruction being accomplished by 

 man. The wholesale slaughter of bird life which took place in the nineteenth 

 century, coincident with the improvement in firearms, brought about the exter- 

 mination of many species of birds, including the Labrador Duck. Never an 

 abundant species, it was evidently unable to withstand constant persecution on 

 its breeding grounds, where it was sought for the sake of its eggs, its feathers, 

 and for its flesh. During the flightless period, when both young and adult birds 

 were helpless, the annihilation of this beautiful little Sea Duck was not difficult 

 to accomplish. The last Labrador Duck on record was shot on Long Island, 

 New York, in the autumn of 1875. A specimen, since lost, is said to have been 

 taken at Elmira, New York, in 1878. The species was supposed to have bred in 

 a restricted range on the south coast of the Labrador Peninsula, and wintered 

 on the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to New Jersey. Forty-four specimens 

 in various museums throughout the world are all that remain to remind us of 

 the Labrador Duck, and to warn us against a repetition of this disaster. 



