(PLATE 36.)
_Anas labradoria_ Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 2, p. 537 (1788--"Habitat
gregaria in America, boreali." Ex Pennant and Latham.)
_Anas labradora_ Latham, Ind. Orn. II, p. 859 (1790).
_Rhynchaspis labradora_ Stephens, in Shaw's Gen. Zool. XII, 2, p. 121
(1824).
_Fuligula labradora_ Bonaparte, Ann. Lyceum N.Y. II, p. 391 (1826).
_Somateria labradora_ Boie, Isis 1828, p. 329.
_Kamptorhynchus labradorus_ Eyton, Mon. Anat. p. 151 (1838).
_Fuligula grisea_ Leib, Journ. Acad. Sc. Philad. VIII, p. 170
(1840--young bird).
_Camptolaimus labradorus_ Gray, List. Gen. B. ed. 2, p. 95 (1841);
Dutcher, Auk. 1891, p. 201, pl. II; 1894, pp. 4-12; Hartl. Abh. naturw.
Ver. Bremen XVI, p. 23 (1895).
_Camptolaemus labradorius_ Baird, B.N. Amer. p. 803 (1858); Baird,
Brewer and Ridgway, Water--B. N. Amer. II, p. 63 (1884); Milne-Edw. and
Oustalet, Centen. Mus. d'Hist. Nat., Notice Ois. éteint. p. 51, pl. IV
(1893); Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXVII, p. 416 (1895).
The adult male and a young male, both in my museum, are represented on
plate 36, but the young bird became too rufous, through the colour type
reproduction, and should be somewhat more mouse-gray. Though first
technically named by Gmelin in 1788, this duck was first described in 1785
by Pennant, in the Arctic Zoology II, p. 559, as follows:--
"Pied Duck. With the lower part of the bill black, the upper yellow, on the
summit of the head is an oblong black spot; forehead, cheeks, rest of the
head and neck, white; the lower part encircled with black; scapulars and
coverts of wings white; back, breast, belly, and primaries, black; tail
cuneiform, and dusky; legs black. The bill of the supposed female?
resembles that of the male, head and neck mottled with cinereous brown and
dirty white; primaries dusky; speculum white; back, breast, and belly
clouded with different shades of ash-colour; tail dusky and cuneiform; legs
black. Size of a common Wild Duck.
"Sent from Connecticut, to Mrs. Blackburn. Possibly the great flocks of
pretty Pied Ducks, which whistled as they flew, or as they fed, seen by Mr.
Lawson in the western branch of Cape Fear inlet, were of this kind."
The Labrador-Duck is one of those birds, the disappearance of which is not
easily explained. As Mr. Dutcher truly said, "we can speculate as to the
cause of its disappearance, but we have no facts to warrant a conclusion."
Formerly _Camptolaimus_ was of regular occurrence along the northern
Atlantic shores of North America, in winter south to New Jersey and New
York. It has often been sold on the markets of New York and Baltimore, and
nobody anticipated even fifty years ago that they might become extinct, but
they {106} appear never to have been very numerous, at least we have no
proof of this. It is true that Professor Newton tells us that this duck
used to breed on rocky islets, and that "its fate is easily understood,"
since "man began yearly to visit its breeding haunts, and, not content in
plundering its nests, mercilessly to shoot the birds." This, however, seems
to be mere conjecture, as we do not know for certain where the breeding
haunts of this Duck have been, and that anyone has ever visited them. All
information known about the breeding of this bird is that of Audubon, who
says that his son was shown empty nests on the top of bushes, which a clerk
of the fishing establishment told him were those of the Labrador Duck. This
information is certainly too uncertain to draw any conclusions from, but
the breeding places might just as well have been much further to the north,
and probably were.
The number of specimens extant is 48.
Amiens, Town Museum: 1 [male] ad. (Auk. 1897, p. 87).
Berlin Museum: 1, bought from Salmin (Hartl. p. 23).
Paris: [male] adult, presented 1810 by M. Hyde de Neuville.
London, British Museum: 2, a [male] ad. and a [female] ad., neither of
them with exact locality or date.
Liverpool: 2 [male] ad., 1 [female], 1 [male] jun.