Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1891 — The Labrador Duck. [ARTICLE]

The Labrador Duck.

It will surprise nviny readers to be told that a large and strikingly marked duck, which within fifty years was moderate!}' common upon the Northern Atlantic coast, is believed now to have become extinct. A lad shot one in New York on the Chemung River Dec. 12, 1878, and none have been seen since. The last one known to have been seen before that time was killed at Grand Manan in April, 1871. The one killed in 1878 eaten before any naturalist heard of its capture—a costly meal, as, according to Dr. Cones, 8200 had been vainly offered for a pair of skins. The head and a portion of the neck were preserved. The history of the duck in question, the Labrador duck or the pied duck, is made the subject of an article by Mr. William Dutcher in a recent number of the Auk. Only thirtyeight specimens are known to be extant in all the museums of the world —twenty-seven in America and eleven in Europe. Yet it is only a short time since specimens might have been secured with comparative ease. One of our older ornithologists, Mr. George N. Lawrence, of New York, writing in January, 1891, says: “About forty or more years ago it was not uncommon to see them in Fulton Market. At one time I remember seeing six fine males, which hung there till they spoiled for want of a purchaser. They were not considered desirable for the table, and collectors had a sufficient number, a pair being at that time considered enough to represent a species. ” Another ornithologist, Mr. G. A. Boardman, of Calais, Maine, says that fifty years ago, when he began to collect birds, he had no difficulty in getting a pair of Labrador ducks, which was all he wanted, but that thirty years afterward, when he tried to procure specimens for " some NewYork friends, his collectors all along the coast reported that the birds were gone. Unlike the great auk, the Labrador duck was a good flier, and was especially persecuted by gunners. One fac'tof popular interest connected with the bird is that Daniel Webster shot a pair on the Vineyard Islands, and presented them to Audubon, who in turn presented them to Professor Baird. It is not improbable, as suggested by Mr. Dutcher, that other mounted specimens may yet be discovered in out-of-the-way places. It would not be very wonderful if some reader of this article should have the good fortune to turn an honest penny for himself, and at the same time serve the cause of science by finding in some seashore cottage or elsewhere a skin of this now famous bird.—Youth’s Companion.