62 DUCKS, GEESE AND SWANS OF NORTH AMEKICA. 



Genus CAMPTOLAIMUS Gray. 



CAMPTOLAinUS LABRADORIUS {GmeL). 



Labrador Duck. Pied Duck. 



Adult mala : Head, neck, and upper breast, wing surface including scapulars, wiug cov- 

 erts, and secondaries, white ; a collar around the neck, and a stripe extending over the fore- 

 head along the top of the head to the base of the skull, black ; rest of plumage, including 

 upper back, primaries, and under parts, black ; legs and toes, ashy ; webs, black ; terminal 

 half of bill, black ; basal half, pale orange, the latter color extending along the edges of the 

 mandible for two-thirds the length of the bill ; iris, dark hazel. 



Adult female : General plumage, brownish ash with a bluish tinge on the feathers of the 

 back, and wing coverts; secondaries, white, forming a wing band; teitiaries, ashy, edged 

 with black ; bill and feet, as in the male. 



Length, about 19; wing, 8.25; tail, 2.45; tarsus, 1.95; bill, 1.45. 



The Labrador Duck, or Pied Duck as it is sometimes called, is now, prob- 

 ably, an extinct species, although its disappearance is of comparatively recent 

 date. Why such a strong flying bird, and one so eminently able to take care of 

 itself, as this duck must have been, should have become extinct, is one of the 

 secrets of nature. 



My friend, the late Mr. George N. Lawrence, told me he had often seen 

 Labrador Ducks oflered for sale in Fulton Market, New York City, some- 

 where back in the forties. As far as we know there are but forty-two speci- 

 mens of this bird now preserved in various museums and private collections 

 of the world. 



