232 



THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



Black sports from the early flocks of Barred Plymouth Rocks 

 undoubtedly contributed many specimens to the Black Java breed 

 during the years of 1880 to 1890. 



The eastern strain. Dr. W. H. Harwood, New York State, 

 whose Black Javas we.re reported to be of pure Bicknell strain, issued 

 a mating list in 1920 in which he gave an antiquity to the origin of 

 the breed which was contrary to the breed's history recorded by 

 Bicknell. Dr. Harwood stated: 



This is not an American breed, as has been commonly supposed, but comes, as 

 its name indicates, from the isle of Java, in the East Indies. About 1835 an old 

 New England sea captain who made many voyages to the East Indies brought 

 home some of these fowls and presented them, to a friend, Amasa Converse, of 

 Northampton, Massachusetts. He in turn presented some of these fowls to a niece, 

 who afterward became Mrs. Lyman J. Tower. Everyone agrees that these fowls 

 were as finished and well established a breed in their earliest years in this country 

 as the breed is now. Mrs. Tower, unlike the Missouri doctor of whom we have 

 heard so much, freely furnished her neighbors with this stock until there was in 

 Hampshire county, Massachusetts, many families breeding them. No doubt the 

 Missouri doctor obtained his stock from this source. It is due to J. Y. Bicknell 

 and his associates, C. S. Whiting, G. M. Mathews and others, that the Missouri 

 line became so prominent. I have my information concerning the origin of tne 

 Black Javas in this country from J. Lyman Kelly, of Malone, New York, formerly 

 of Hampshire county, Massachusetts, who was a grandson of Mrs. Tower, with 

 whom he lived when a boy, and who gave him the information aforesaid. 



Undoubtedly the parties referred to had 



Black Javas as bred by Henry C. Turck, Ohio, and 

 illustrated in the American Poultry Journal, De- 

 cember, 1888. Mr. Turck made a specialty of the 

 variety for a number of years. Today a longer- 

 bodied bird is wanted in both male and female. The 

 tail of the male is altogether too high to meet pres- 

 ent requirements. 



what they called Black 

 Javas, and these Black 

 Javas were equally 

 without doubt of 

 Asiatic origin as 

 claimed, and the mod- 

 ern Black Javas of to- 

 day are descendants, 

 with modifications, of 

 the imported fowls. 

 Just as the Barred 

 Plymouth Rock is a 

 descendant from the 

 Black Cochin or Java, 

 so is the modern Black 

 Java a descendant 

 from the Black Co- 

 chin or the Java. The 

 confusion is due to the 

 fact that the early 

 Black Asiatic fowls 

 were known as Black 

 Javas as well as by 

 the name of Black 

 Cochins. 



