The Curse Of The Labrador Duck: My Obsessive Quest to the Edge of Extinction

Little is known about the Labrador Duck, which once populated eastern North America but has been extinct for more than a hundred years. Stuffed specimens are rare—only fifty-four are thought to exist. Even rarer is the kind of scientist who would travel around the globe more than three times in search of every last stuffed bird. And what about the curse? Everyone who has owned a particular specimen has come to a bad end.

Over the course of his epic journey, Chilton encountered a colourful flock of scientists, journalists and amateur ornithologists, not to mention a Scottish egg thief. His pursuit of the extinct species took him from the duck’s breeding habitat in Labrador to Europe and America as he searched museums and personal collections. He also endured numerous hangovers and narrowly avoided arrest in New York City, all leading up to his final pursuit of the last duck and his own part in the species’ many-feathered legacy.

The Curse of the Labrador Duck is a quest unlike any other, an impulsive journey around the planet in pursuit of a bird no one in our lifetime has seen alive or ever will again.