30B 
THE POULTRY BOOK. 
THE CAYUGA, OR LARGE AMERICAN BLACK DUCK. 
Under tlie title of the Cayuga, or Big Black duck, a large variety is known in 
the United States, which would be a desirable addition to our poultry-yards. 
Mr. C. N. Bement, a well-known transatlantic writer on poultry subjects, thus 
describes it in an article in the ^‘American Country Gentleman : ” — 
This bird derives its name from the lake on which it is supposed to have been 
first discovered. Of its origin, little is now known ; it was quite common some fifty 
years ago in the barn-yards in the vicinity of Boston, &c. ‘ In the year 1812,’ 
says Dr. Bachman, in a note addressed to Mr. Audubon, ‘ I saw in Duchess 
county, in the State of New York, at the house of a miller, a fine flock of ducks, to 
the number of at least thirty, wdiich, from their peculiar appearance, struck me as 
different from any I had before seen among the different varieties of the tame 
duck. On inquiry, I was informed that three years before a pair of these ducks 
had been captured in the mill-pond. They were kept in the poultry-yard, and it 
was said were easily tamed. One joint of the wing was taken off to prevent their 
flying away. In the following spring they were suffered to go into the pond, and 
they returned daily to the house to be fed. They built their nests on the edge of 
the pond, and reared large broods. The family of the miller used them occasionally 
as food, and considered them equal in flavour to the common duck, and they 
were easily raised. The old males were more beautiful than any I have examined 
since, and as yet, domestication has produced no variety in their plumage.’ 
‘ The young of this species,’ — the Wild Black duck — says Audubon, ‘grow 
with remarkable rapidity, and, like the Mallard, of which they seem to be only a 
variety, acquire the full beauty of their spring plumage before the season of 
reproduction commences. * ^ ^ In the early part of autumn the young 
afford delicious eating — in our opinion, very much superior to the famous and more 
celebrated canvass-back duck.’ 
‘‘ ‘ It is admitted,’ says another writer, ‘ that our Cayuga ducks originally sprung 
from the Wild Black duck ; however altered they may now appear in bulk, colour, 
or habits, the essential habits remain the same ; no disinclination to breed with 
each other is evinced between them, and the offspring are as prolific as their 
mutual parents. The general tone of their plumage is closely repeated in all 
specimens.’ 
‘^Of the origin of the Cayuga duck, I cannot give anything reliable. This 
duck has been bred in the country so long, that all trace of the origin is lost. 
Tradition says they are descended from a sort of wild ducks that stop in 
Cayuga Lake and Seneca Biver, on their passage North and South, fall and 
spring ; yet from hunters I have never been able to obtain or hear of any closely 
resembling them, either in weights or feathers. Yet they are called the ‘ Big 
Black duck,’ ^ Cayuga,’ or ‘ Lake duck.’ 
“ The Black Cayuga duck in perfection, is black with a white collar on the neck, 
or white flecks on the neck and breast — rarely black without white, and as the 
