THE LABRADOR DUCK 369 



be taken tlie lucky gunner would find it the 

 most profitable bit of seafowl shooting of his 

 career, for he might command his own price 

 for the prize. I think the last recorded speci- 

 men, as published by the '*Auk," the official 

 journal of the American Ornithologist's Union, 

 was one taken at Grand Menan Island in 1871. 

 There are very few specimens in collections 

 (some forty in this country and perhaps twenty 

 across the water) and it is probable that these 

 will always be highly prized, the value of each 

 bird increasing every year. Very few can be 

 had at any price. The figure paid at the last 

 sale of which I knew was $1,000 per duck. 



Cast in the heavy ponderous mould of the 

 seaduck, short of wing, slow and heavy in flight, 

 and comparatively clumsy in model, the bird 

 bears some resemblance to the eiders both in 

 shape and markings. As it was fitted out with 

 all the advantages possessed by the coots and 

 eiders, it is hard to see why the race should 

 have died out. Audubon tells of its breeding 

 habits. It was a strictly maritime species and 

 nested from the coast of Labrador into the 

 north, in winter coming southward to the waters 

 of the Chesapeake. This is about all we know 



