Labrador duck

noun

1. an extinct sea duck, Camptorhynchus labradorius, of northern North America, having black and white plumage.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Labrador duck¹

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Example Sentences

McGrain’s subjects have included, among others, the passenger pigeon, the great auk, the Labrador duck, the heath hen, and the Carolina parakeet.

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The less numerous Labrador duck and Eskimo curlew suffered the same fate.

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Ordinary hunters seeking sport or food were not to blame for the near loss of the bison and the extinction of such species as the passenger pigeon, heath hen and Labrador duck.

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Before the end of this smart, likable coming-of-age movie, the members of a high school’s Young Birder Society go on an expedition in search of the Labrador duck, a supposedly extinct species.

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The great auk, once common on the British coasts, those of Denmark, the east coast of North America, then restricted to those of Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland, has been killed by man, and the same fate has overtaken the Labrador duck, the Phillip Island parrot, Nestor productus, and the large cormorant of Bering Island, Phalacrocorax perspicillatus; and how long will the flightless cormorant, Ph. harrisi of the Galapagos, survive its quite recent discovery?

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