2l6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



sometime before I got a chance to kill one of them. It is a male bird which 

 I have. I crippled a female at the same time, but did not get it as the tide 

 was running so swiftly. They were the first of the kind that I ever saw 

 and have seen only two since. They are a diving duck and like to play 

 arotind the rocks. I watched them several times while they were there 

 and they played like small boys playing tag. I have gunned over 40 years 

 here and as far south as Savannah, but never saw them anywhere but on 

 the island and so think they are a rare bird." [W. W. Reeves] 



Caniptorh3mchus labradorius (Gmelin) 

 Labrador Duck 



Anas labradoria Gmelin. Syst. Nat. 1788. 1:537 



Fuligula labradoria DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 326, fig. 258 



Camptolaimus labradorius A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 156 



camptorhynchus, Gr. (ca/xTTTos, flexible, and pvyxo^, beak; labrado' rius , 

 of Labrador 



Description. "Adult male: Head, neck, chest, scapulars, and wings 

 (except quills) white; rest of plumage, including stripe on top of head and 

 broad ring round neck, deep black; stiffened feathers of cheeks brownish 

 white. Adult female-: Uniform brownish gray, the wings more plumbeous; 

 tertials silvery edged with blackish; secondaries white; primaries dusky. 

 Young male: Similar to the adult female, but chin and throat white, and 

 white of chest of adult male strongly indicated; greater wing coverts white." 



"Length about 18-23.75 inches; wing 8.5-8.9; culmen 1.6- 1.7; tarsus 

 1. 5-1. 6; middle toe 2.25-2.4." [Ridgway] 



This species, which was also known as the Pied duck or Skunk duck on 

 account of the black and white coloration of the male, formerly occurred, 

 according to Audubon, "in greater or less nvimbers along the coast of New 

 Jersey and Long Island." The late Mr George N. Lawrence said: "I 

 recollect that about 40 or more years ago it was not unusual to see them in 

 Fulton Market, and without doubt killed on Long Island. At one time I 

 remember seeing six fine males which hung in the market till spoiled for 

 want of a purchaser; they were not considered desirable for the table and 

 collectors had a sufficient number." [Dutchcr, Auk. 1891. 8:201-16]. 

 Mr Wallace writing in the Nuttall Ornithological Club Bulletin, volume 3, 

 page 79, says few specimens have been obtained on Long Island since 1868, 

 and the last record known is 1874, and that four or five young males or 



