Page:Ducks- and how to make them pay (IA cu31924003102971).pdf/95

Rh mind as to what they really were. Many of the old judges can call to mind a very similar bird which they had seen thirty years ago. These ducks came over from America, and they said they must have been taken there and improved upon, and brought back again. They believed that they originated from our island. Writers and breeders need not trouble their brains any more as to where the Cayugas came from. Those who have bred this race of ducks, and have watched them closely, will have noticed that some of the ducks show brown pencilled feathers on their breasts similar to that of the Rouen, while at the same time in the drakes it can be seen, a few inches from the head down the neck, that the feathers are a peculiar shade, similar to that of the Rouen drake, only not so bright, but rather a cloudy heavy ring, and occasionally they will show a white, ring round the neck, just like that of the Rouen. In some cases I have known them moult out almost the colour of the Rouen. In their second and third moult occasionally their plumage comes almost as white as the Aylesbury. We know black fowls, or black ducks, are liable any time after their first moult to throw white feathers. This is no new thing. Birds with black plumage, even the wild blackbirds, very often throw white wings after they are a few years old, also white round their heads, just the same as most of our black varieties of fowls and ducks. Black East Indians, for instance, will often throw a few white feathers, but not of such a distinct character as the made breeds, like the Cayugas. Those which were imported from America are exactly the same