Cayuga (duck)
A Cayuga drake
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| Country of origin | United States |
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| Use | Egg, meat and ornamental |
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| Classification | |
| APA | Medium |
| PCGB | Heavy |
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A Cayuga Duck is a medium-class domesticated duck breed that has been a popular variety in the USA since the mid-19th century. They are used for egg and meat production, as well as an ornamental bird.
The Cayuga name is taken from Cayuga Lake, one of the lakes in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, where the breed was popularized. They are black with a green head.
Writers on the derivation of the Cayuga Duck have, over time, made more or less the same assertions regarding its origin; these are: it is descended from either pure American Black Ducks (Anas rubripes; syn. A. obscura), or is the result of hybrids between that species and the Mallard or some domesticated variety, and it was first held in a captive state by a miller in Dutchess County around 1809. There is evidence to support one portion of this theory, but, mostly, it is an inaccurate assumption; as will be explained.
John James Audubon, the naturalist and artist, mentions early domestication of the Dusky Duck (Anas obscura, of Audubon) as related to him prior to 1843. The text freely interchanges the name "Dusky" and "Black"; the relevant passage is given here, in part:
"My friend, the Reverend Dr. JOHN BACHMAN, assures me that this bird, which some years ago was rather scarce in South Carolina, is now becoming quite abundant in that state ... After feeding a few weeks on the seeds it becomes fat, juicy, and tender. ... He also informs me that he has known hybrid broods produced by a male of this species and the common domestic Duck; and that he had three of these hybrid females, the eggs of all of which were productive. The young birds were larger than either of their parents, but although they laid eggs in the course of the following spring, not one of these proved impregnated. He further states that he procured three nests of the Dusky Duck in the State of New York. "The young of this species, in the early part of autumn, afford delicious eating, and, in my estimation, are much superior in this respect to the more celebrated Canvass-back Duck. That the species should not before now have been brought into a state of perfect domestication, only indicates our reluctance unnecessarily to augment the comforts which have been so bountifully accorded by Nature to the inhabitants of our happy country."
Although no date is assigned to it, the above text is a perfectly acceptable account of early hybridisation between the Dusky/Black Duck and a variety of domestic duck, as known to Dr. Bachman. However, this evidence has never been included by any writers on the history of the Cayuga Duck.
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