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The Labrador duck (''Camptorhynchus labradorius'') is an extinct North American bird. The Labrador Duck has the dubious distinction of being the first endemic North American bird species to become extinct after the Columbian Exchange. It was already a rare duck before European settlers arrived and became extinct shortly after. As a result of its rarity, there is not an abundance of information on the Labrador Duck but there is some such as its habitat, characteristics, dietary habits, and reasons behind extinction. According to the Naturalis Museum there are 54 specimens of the Labrador Duck preserved in museum collections worldwide. However, according to Chilton, there are actually 55 specimens of the duck around the world.〔Chilton, Glen. The Curse of the Labrador Duck: My Obsessive Quest to the Edge of Extinction. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009. Print.〕 ==Taxonomy== The Labrador duck is considered a sea duck. A basic difference in the shape of the process of metacarpal I divides the sea ducks into two groups: #''Bucephala'' and the mergansers. #The eiders, scoters, ''Histrionicus'' and ''Clangula'', and ''Camptorhynchus''. The position of the nutrient foramen of the tarsometatarsus also separates the two groups of sea ducks. In the first group the foramen is lateral to the long axis of the lateral groove of the hypotarsus; in the second the foramen is on or medial to the axis of that groove. The Labrador duck was also known as the pied duck and skunk duck, the former being a vernacular name that it shared with the surf scoter and the common goldeneye (and even the American oystercatcher), a fact that has led to difficulties in interpreting old records of these species. Both names refer to the male's striking white/black piebald coloration. Yet another common name was sand shoal duck, referring to its habit of feeding in shallow water. The closest evolutionary relatives of the Labrador duck are apparently the scoters (''Melanitta''). ==Description== The female plumage was gray. Although weakly patterned, the pattern was scoter like. The male’s plumage was black and white in an eider like pattern, but the wings were entirely white except for the primaries. The trachea of the male was scoter like. There was an expansion of the tracheal tube at the anterior end and two enlargements (as opposed to one enlargement as seen in scoters) near the middle of the tube. The bulla was bony and round, puffing out from the left side. This asymmetrical and osseus bulla was unlike that of scoters; this bulla was similar to eiders’ and the harlequin duck’s bullae. The Labrador Duck is of the most enigmatic of all North American birds. The Labrador duck had an oblong head with small, beady eyes. Its bill was almost as long as its head. The body was short and depressed with short, strong feet that were far behind the body. As per the feather, they were small and the tail was short and rounded. One last known fact of the Labrador duck is that it belonged to a monotypic genus.〔"Recently Extinct Animals - Species Info - Labrador Duck." Recently Extinct Animals - Species Info - Labrador Duck. N.p., 4 June 2008. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Labrador duck」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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