"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
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 ♂ ad. (Auk. 1897, p. 87).
Berlin Museum: 1, bought from Salmin (Hartl. p. 23).
Paris: ♂ adult, presented 1810 by M. Hyde de Neuville.
London, British Museum: 2, a ♂ ad. and a ♀ ad., neither of them with exact locality or date.
Liverpool: 2 ♂ ad., 1 ♀, 1 ♂ jun.
Cambridge: 1 ♂
Dublin: 1 fine mounted ♂ (Dr. Scharff in litt.)
Tring: 1 ♂ ad., 1 ♂ jun. (See below.)
Brussels: 1 ♂ ad.
St. Petersburg: 1 ♂ ad., purchased from Salmin.
Heine Museum in Germany: 1 poor specimen.
Munich: The Museum possesses a male from the collection of the Duke of Leuchtenberg.
Dresden: 1 ♂ and two doubtful eggs—the latter doubtless wrong I should say.
Vienna: 1 ♂ ad., exchanged from Baron von Lederer in 1830. Locality New York; 1 ♀ ad., bought from Brandt in Hamburg in 1846, for 4 Gulden!
Leiden Museum: ♂ ♀, from the Prince of Wied.
American Museum, New York: 7, three of which formerly belonged to George N. Lawrence.
Long Island Historical Society, Brooklyn: 1 ♂ ad.
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. York: 1 ♂ ad.
New York State Museum, Albany: ♂ ♀ ad.
Cory collection: ♂ ♀ ad.
University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont: 1 ♂ ad.
Philadelphia: 2 ♂ jun., 1 ♀
U.S. National Museum, Washington: 2 ♂, 1 ♀, 1 ♂ jun.
Collection of Mr. William Brewster: 1 ♂ jun., 1 ♀
Boston Society of Natural History: 1 ♂ jun.
Collection of Dalhousie College, Halifax: ♂ ♀
This makes a total of 48 known specimens.
The last specimens killed were those shot in May, 1871, at Grand Manan Island, the date of which is absolutely certain, and the specimen bought from a Mr. J. G. Bell in 1879, for the Smithsonian Institution, which is said to have been shot in 1875, but this date seems not quite certain (Cf. Auk, 1894, p. 9). That several other specimens were shot later than 1852 is perfectly certain. As the specimen of 1875, or thereabouts, is a young male, Mr. Lawrence's question about the old birds is certainly justified. As, however, no Labrador Duck has been recorded later than 1871 or 1875 we may suppose that it is now extinct.
My young male was bought in the Fulton Market, New York, about 1860, and probably came from Long Island. It was mounted by John Bell, a bird-stuffer, through whose hands several Labrador Ducks have gone, and is in the finest possible condition. I bought this bird from the late Gordon Plummer, shortly before his death. He died at his home in Brookline, Mass., in November, 1893. (Cf. Auk, 1891, p. 206.)