Game Cocks and Cock-Fighting. - jAlbumpatricklepetit.jalbum.net/SONGKHLA/LIBRARY/Cocks fighting.pdf · GAME COCKS AND COCK-FIGHTING T HISis not an apology for cock-fighting, a so-called

GAME COCKS AND COCK-FIGHTING

THIS is not an apology for cock-fighting, a so-called amusementwhich has fallen from the high

estate it held for ages among our ancestors,and is now threatened with legal extinctionin two of its strongholds, the Philippines andCuba, in consequence of the occupation ofthose countries by our imperialistic forces.It is not too much to say that the action ofthe United States in preventing farther in-dulgence in this sport, will naturally tendto delay the peaceful settlement of ourdifferences with these people. There is noamusement “more hallowed by the rust oftime” than that of cock-fighting. The firstrecords of China note it. In Persia andIndia it was early practised in connectionwith hawking and it was during an invasionof Persia by the Greeks that Themistocleshalted his army, about to deliver battle,to witness a chance contest between twococks, and drew from the sight a morallesson for his soldiers, by which he wroughtthem up to such a state of valor that theyfell on the Persians so fiercely as to defeatthem shortly and utterly. Owing to thisvictory cock-fighting was thereafter by decreeannually practised at Athens.

occurred in Scotland within the memoryof men now living. During the reign ofEdward III. cock-fighting became a fashion-able amusement, but it was after a timeprohibited by public proclamation as anidle and unlawful pastime. However itstill flourished, and Henry VIII. not onlydevoted himself to it in his seasons of leisurefrom marriage and uxoricide, but addeda cock-pit to the other conveniences ofWhitehall Palace.

James I. was so addicted to the amuse-ment that he took his pleasure at it twice aweek. While Queen Elizabeth, probably byreason of her sex, is said not to have shownthe same active interest in the sport asher royal father, neither did she oppose it,but left her subjects to follow their ownchoice in the matter. The learned RogerAscham, who was tutor to the PrincessElizabeth, and Latin lecturer and readerof the learned languages to her after sheascended the throne, was, according toFuller, “an honest man and a good shooter.Archery was his pastime in youth, whichin old age he exchanged for cock-fighting.”

The spectacle of the combats betweenthese birds was supposed to implant andfoster the seeds of valor in the breasts of theAthenian youth. The custom graduallyspread among the islands of the GrecianArchipelago, and after a time it became apastime and amusement, losing the religiousand political character with which it started.In Rome cock-fighting was known to havebeen practised 450 years before the Christianera, but there, as in Athens, it degeneratedinto a simple amusement, losing its moralfeatures.*

In “Notes and Queries” it is stated thatthere is no record of the introduction of cock-fighting into England before 1191, thoughothers believe and with reason, that thepractice was coexistent with the Romanconquest and flourished during the cen-turies of Roman occupation of Britain.The habit of school children fighting cockson Shrove Tuesday in the school and underthe auspices and control of the master wascarried on for centuries in various parts ofBritain, and instances of it are said to have

In Blaine’s Encyclopædia of Rural Sport,he speaks of “Roger Ascham’s well knowntreatise on the subject,” but “Johnson’sLife” says that though Ascham himselfrefers to what he calls his “Book of theCock-pit,” if it ever existed in more thanhis contemplation it has not been preserved.The literature of this period and latertreated cock-fighting as a well known andlaudable amusement. Not only did royaltyand the nobility and gentry of the kingdomset the seal of approval on the cock-pit butthe clergy, as is now the case with theirbrethren of the elder communion in thepresent and late Spanish possessions, lookedon the sport with a benevolent and sympa-thetic eye. Indeed the Rev. Dr. RobertWild, rector of Aynho in Northamptonshire,who was equally distinguished as a preacher,wit and poet, published a very clever poemon the subject, called “Verses on Cock-fighting,” beginning thus:“No sooner were the doubtful people set,

The match made up, and all that would hadbet,

But straight the skilful judges of the frayBrought forth the sharp-heeled warriors, and

they*Blaine’s Encyclopædia and Johnson’s Sporting Dictionary.

From an old English print.

READY FOR THE BATTLE.

Game Cocks and Cock-fighting 349Were both in linen bags, as if ’twere meetBefore they died to have their winding sheet.Into the pit they’re brought, and being thereUpon the stage, the Norfolk chanticleerLook’d stoutly at his ne’er before seen foe,And, like a challenger, began to crow.’

* * * * *In a work entitled “The Whole Art of

Husbandry Contained in Foure Bookes,” etc.,written by Gervase Markham and publishedin 1631, he says in the Booke containing“Entreating of Poultrie”: “I will now pro-ceede to a creature of a much more excellentand heroyicall nature, and such an one asthe Ancients for his heighth of spirit andgreatnesse of minde, made the only compan-ion of the god of Warre, and that is thefighting Cocke or Cocke for Battaile. Andthe rather I undertake this labour becauseI see the great height whereunto this Pas-time or Recreation ascendeth, the manyjudiciall and most expert knowledges whichare pregnant with all the mysteries hiddenin the art. * * * First to speake some-thing of the nature and dignity of the fight-ing Cocke, ye Ancients, as Pliny Columella,Varro and others, affirme that of all sensiblecreatures they are the most valiant, of thehighest spirit, and the most constant anduncontrolable in all their actions, for theirvalour is so infinite that they end theirbattailes onely in certaine death, andthough the conqueror sound his own tri-umph in clapping his wings and crowing,yet the conquered, even to the last gaspe,will shew all the characters of resistanceshewing that however his body may besubject to Fortune, yet his minde can ac-knowledge no such deity. * * * Nowfor the antiquity of this pastime or recrea-tion (for I can give it no greater epitheton),some would have it as ancient as theOlimpicke games and that from the imitationof these Birdes, the Gladiators or Fencersfirst invented and put in practice theart of Sworde play, and sure it is not un-likely, for the first two Cockes that everwere bred would give notice of their natureso that the sonnes of Noah could not chusebut make use of their enmity; but, leavingConjectures, I find both by Pliny andothers that in the Infancie of the Romancommonwealth there was yearly held atPergamus a solemne triumph or meetingonly to behold a Cocke-fight, which continuedfor divers dayes having the resort of allthe nations that dwelled about them, andhence it came to be dispersed farre and

neare into other Countries; and for myowne part I doe not finde (in this Kingdomof ours) any monument of pleasure what-ever more ancient than the Cocke-pit.”

In an earlier work by the same authorentitled “Country Contentments” ChapterXIX. “of the Choyce, Ordering, Breeding,and Dyeting of the fighting Cocke forbattell” he begins thus: “Since there isno pleasure more Noble, Delightsome, orvoid of Couzenage and deceite than thispleasure of Cocking is; and since many ofthe best wisdomes of our Nation have beenpleased to participate with the delightstherein, I think it not amiss, as well forthe instruction of those which are unex-perienced, as fortifying of them which havesome knowledge therein, to declare in afew lines the Election, Breeding, and Secretsof dyeting the fighting Cocke, which havingbin hitherto concealed and unwritten of is(for our Pleasure’s Sake) as worthy ageneral knowledge as any delight whatso-ever.”

In “The Pleasures of Princes or Good-men’s Recreations” 1614—and “The En-glish Husbandman”, 1613—both by GervaseMarkham, are long chapters on the “fightingCocke”—the contents of one being: “TheChoyce of the Cocke for battell—TheBreeding of the Battell Cocke—The dyetingof Cockes for battell—Of taking up Cockes—Of the Cocke-penne—Of his dyet—OfSparring of Cockes—The Stowing of Cockes—Of the best dyet-bread—Of the bestScouring—The Matching of Cockes—Thepreparing Cockes to the fights—The order-ing of Cockes after the battell and thecuring them.”

Fairfax: Complete Sportsman, 1764—and The Country Gentleman’s Companion,1753, contain long treatises on this subject,and in fact scarcely any of the few Englishbooks published in the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries on country life, sport,or recreation, fail to give, as a matter ofcourse, full and definite instructions as tothe breeding and fighting of game fowls.

The origin of the game cock is lost in themists of antiquity, but the breed is doubt-less older than any other known one of ourdomestic fowls, though none of the manytheories of its derivation is satisfactory.The jungle cock of India has been by someconsidered the progenitor of the breed, butmodern attempts at crossing it or thepheasant with any kind of domestic fowl

350 Game Cocks and Cock-fighting

have been disappointing. It is quite pos- most essential of their characteristics, itsible that the first created cock which crew is safe to say the breed would be extinctin the Garden of Eden was a game one, in twenty-five years. It is also safe tothough, if such is the case how all the say that not one in ten of the so-calleddegenerate families of the present day could game fowls exhibited in poultry showshave descended from him is almost incon- and advertised for sale, especially in theceivable, though not more so than that he North, is the genuine article, the embodi-should have sprung from any of them. ment of valor to a greater degree thanHowever this may be, he cannot be kept any living creature, which no odds can ter-up to the high standard desirable without rify, which shows as much willingness tobeing permitted to indulge his natural in- meet a fresh foe when beaten and helpless as

From an old printWESTMINSTER COCK-PIT, 1831.

stinct for fighting, and by breeding from when in full force and vigor and dies fight-those individuals which have developed this ing if unable to do more than raise hisinstinct in its best form. The extent of head to meet his adversary. To quotethis development cannot be known unless Blaine once more: “Philanthropists are incocks are fought, any more than can the the habit of declaiming much against theexcellencies of a football player or of a practice of cock-pit battles but on reflectionrace horse except they be shown on the the cruelty of that sport will be foundfield or on the course. Were game fowls among the least wherein the feelings ofnot bred and fought by those who believe animals are concerned, since fighting, inthat spirit and courage to do or die is the the game cock, is a natural and irresistible

Game Cocks and Cock-fighting 3 5 1

passion and can never take place againsthis will; and since those engaged in regularcombat upon the arena would do so volun-tarily and with equal ardor did they meetin a desert. Another similar mistake is thesupposed additional cruelty of arming theheel of the cock with steel spurs, whichon the contrary, conduces to shorten theperiod of their suffering.” The concludingsentence is undoubtedly true and the com-paratively short quick battles waged bycocks trained into condition and armedwith the gaffs or their own spurs sharpenedto needle like points, as is the custom inCuba, are far less painful than the bloodycombats between cocks meeting in barn-yards and battering each other into deathor insensibility after long and tediousstruggles.

The British Isles, until the last halfcentury, have for a long period been thetheater wherein the finest breeds of cockshave had the most skilful preparation andhandling, and have ended their gallantlives in the carpeted pit before the best inthe land. Cromwell’s attempt by procla-mation in 1654, to stop the sport was onlytemporarily successful, and with the Restor-ation it was resumed openly throughout thekingdom. Mains and matches were de-cided at most of the principal race meetingsand for many years one or more mainsconstituted an essential feature of the great,annual race meeting at Chester and York.Cock-pits were established in all the principaltowns, and London had many of them, themost prominent being the Cock-pit, RoyalTufton street, Westminster. One of the de-votees of the amusement, Col. Mordaunt,widely known as a kind-hearted, generousman, who spent much time and money inwise attempts to benefit the condition ofthe poor, being anxious to compare theEnglish game fowl with those of India,made the slow and uncomfortable voyageto that remote country with a number ofcocks, to test the matter, and returneddefeated. What cocker of the present de-generate age would devote a year or moreto such a purpose with no hope of rewardsave that of his own conscience, leaving hisnative land, his family, and his philan-thropic duties without his countenance andfostering care?

The popularity of the sport has notlanguished until the last few years, and atthe present day many a match and main is

fought during the winter and spring in theBritish Isles. Among the famous veteransof the pit, Joseph Gilliver stands at thehead by reason of his long series of successesas a breeder and handler. He died in 1833,full of years and honors, and in the enjoy-ment of a competence earned in his vocation.He won several mains against the cocks ofthe then Earl of Derby, whose breed of birdsis famous to the present day, but the crown-ing effort, of his career was his victory inthe greatest main ever fought, which wasfor 1000 guineas a battle and 5,000 guineasthe main. In this seven cocks on a sidecontested, and Gilliver won five of thebattles. His grandson, William Gilliver,was lately pursuing the ancestral occupationin Warwickshire and the descendants ofsome of the fowls used by his distinguishedforbear are now in this country.

In the United States it is doubtful ifcock-fighting flourished among the earlyNew England settlers and in these partsit has always been conducted somewhatunder the rose. Still the characteristicYankee enterprise has been the means ofbringing out and introducing to the Southa strain of game cocks second to none, ofwhich hereafter. Under the less austere con-ditions which obtained as the English-speak-ing settlement grew to the West and Souththe sport likewise grew. In New York andthe Jerseys it was considered a pardonablediversion, and by the time the colony ofVirginia was reached it was regarded as oneof the proper pastimes of a gentleman. Thack-eray realized this in “The Virginians,” andspeaks of cock-fighting as something com-mon to the region and one of the usualentertainments at the country taverns.While at the present day some of the south-ern States forbid it by statutory enactment,others have no laws against it and cock-fights are advertised and carried on openlyin the presence of large crowds of specta-tors. Many of these performances are heldin the day time in the open air, and in thecapital of one State where most of thelawyers’ offices were built about an opengreen in the shadow of the temple of jus-tice their occupants were wont to whileaway the tedium of idle afternoons bymaking this space the theater of fightswhich could be witnessed from the sur-rounding windows.

There are now several flourishing periodi-cals in the South published in the interests

From a rare old print.T H E F A M O U S C O C K - F I G H T A T L U C K N O W , I N D I A , O N T H E V I S I T O N C O L . M O R D A U N T .

Game Cocks and Cock-fighting 3 5 3

of cock-fighters and full of accounts of mains,challenges from different breeders and ad-vertisements of all the various parapher-nalia appertaining to the art. Men in thesepapers offer for sale cocks of the variousfashionable breeds—“Warhorses,” “FannieCarters,” “Eslin Red Quills,” “ArkansasTravelers,” “Gordons,” “Cotton Bolls,”“Trans-Atlantics,” said to be “Hustlersfrom the jump and always good for one morekick,” and many more. One gentleman hassuch confidence in his strain that he offersto furnish cocks for $12 each paying his ownexpenses and “conditioning them for mains,great or small, in the Carolinas, Virginia orGeorgia,” no charge to be made for any cocklosing his battle. This certainly is a liberaland sportsmanlike proposition and themaker of it concludes, in capitals, “Try meonce and you will want me again.” TheWarhorse strain is generally admitted to beequal if not superior to the best of the manyothers, though the “Claiborne’s,” the “Es-lin Red Quills” and the “Gordons” are veryhighly esteemed. The South owes the War-horse game fowls, as it does the cotton gin,to New England enterprise. The story isas follows. A gentleman of Marblehead,Mass., who, rising superior to the New Eng-land prejudices against this form of sport,fought his cocks wherever victories were tobe won and honor gained throughout theEastern and Middle States, finally penetratedthe South, making the Carolinas andGeorgia the theaters of his mains. Havingmet defeat several times in these parts hefinally produced some brown and black redshe had procured from the Emerald Isle (asfamous for its cocks as for its men), calledthe Irish Gilders. With these birds hemarched through Georgia conquering, asdid Sherman, and winning fame and moneygalore. After several years of conquest,thinking his fowls needed a cross, theirowner dispatched an ancient sport namedDolan across the ocean to his native sod insearch of the proper birds. Dolan returnedfrom his quest bringing some dark grays,which crossed with the “Gilders,” producedoffspring considered unbeatable. These in-vaded the Sunny South with glowing suc-cess, and Shawlnecks, Baltimore top knots,Dominiques and other famous strains suc-cumbed before the quick fighting, hard hit-ting, clean cutting foreigners. At a mainin Charleston, S. C., where one of these birdswon by sheer gameness, and after a long

struggle, an Irish spectator enthusiasticallyshouted, “Bedad but thim’s the warhorses.”The name stuck, and one Hopkinson of At-lanta, who obtained some of the breed hassince perpetuated it with loving care, andits unsullied reputation has extended overthe broad plains of Texas and to the distantcapital of the Mexican Republic. Someof the cocks of this strain are gray in colorand these are generally thought preferableto the red ones, even when full brothers—the hens are nearly all jet black.

So long as the sport maintains its presentprosperous state in the South there is nodanger of the breed of game fowls dying out,though the extinction of the valiant bird iscertain to ensue if he is left to the merciesof the philanthropist and such as only ad-mire him for his good looks. It is ratherstrange that there is no absolutely distinc-tive type of game fowls, but that they varymore in outward appearance than any ofthe other breeds. They may be very small.or very large, of any color or combinationof colors from pure white to pure black,loose or hard feathered and with plain orrose combs. Some have large tassels or top-knots and others heavy bunches of feathers-on their cheeks called muffs. Blaine speaksof a variety of tailless or “rumpless” games.So greatly do they differ in shape, plumage,color and other details that it is hard to be-lieve they sprang at no very remote periodin the life of the world from one parentstock though they probably did so, as thereis no peculiarity in the makeup of a gamecock that is not found in some of the dung-hill tribe. It also seems improbable thatany number of generations of selection,natural or artificial, could give to any otherfamilies of fowls the dauntless and persist-ent courage and the fighting ability thatcome instinctively to game fowls. It willprobably never be established that the firstcreated cock was game, though it is farmore likely that he should have been madeperfect and beautiful to begin with thanthat he was evolved from any of the thou-sands of the vastly inferior families of fowlsnow known: Still the dunghill cock hasvalorous characteristics which would behighly esteemed but for the more strikingones of his game relation. It is unquestion-ably one of the former strain which hasbecome the emblem of France, probably byreason of the inhabitants of that countrynot having, knowledge of game fowls.

354 Game Cocks and Cock-fighting

The game cock needs no education orexperience to teach him war-one whichhas never struck a blow will fight his firstopponent with as much skill and vigor asany succeeding ones, and one drop of ad-mixture of dunghill blood, while it may notimpair his fighting qualities, will be sure toassert itself when the supreme test of game-ness is applied to him or to his descendants.There are breeds of fowls known to havethis strain which have proved very success-ful in the pit on account of their strength,fastness and fighting powers, over such asare undoubtedly game. Such a strain wasone known as the “Gipseys,” which heldtheir own for years as the house birds at theold Harlem Lane pit where the genial andobese Luff presided twice a week over thesports. These Gipseys were so fast andstrong that they would beat the majorityof game cocks pitted against them, yet theywould run with great uniformity after areal hard cutting.

A famous New York pit was for yearsoperated in the Bowery near Broome street.There the veterans Giles, Clacker, Moss,Hawkes, Mulholland, and others now de-parted, were wont to assemble semi-weeklySo enjoy the entertainments of those meet-ings. Sickels of Brooklyn was also a regu-lar attendant, and always appeared dressedas if for church, and looking not unlike theparson Pierce Egan describes in a visit to theCock-pit Royal in London, and feeding andfighting for his own money as good cocksas ever flew. The glories of these and otherresorts of the like character have departedand it is probable that very little cock-fight-ing is now carried on in Greater New York.The hardy pioneers who won the West forthis country carried along their game fowlswith their axes and rifles and the shrillcrow of the gallant bird was often the firstcivilized sound to break the silence of theprimeval forest. This was especially thecase in those parts settled from Virginiaand the descendants of those immigrantsretain to this day their fondness for agame cock. A Dr. Clarke, of Indianapolis,who besides being an M.D. is also an A.M.,has written several treatises on the gamecock. A few years since, following, on aneasier plan, the example of Col. Mordauntabove mentioned, he took a lot of his cocksabroad and met and conquered the fowlsof the leading cockers of France, Englandand Belgium with a famous strain called the

Trans-Atlantic, winning according to hisstatement thirty-four out of fifty-nine bat-tles. Dr. Clarke relieves the tedium of hisprofessional duties by dealing in game fowls,gaffs, etc., and fighting mains with all comers.

The qualities to be desired in game fowlsare:

1st. Cutting, i. e., the ability to hit withtheir heels about every time they rise andto rise every time their opponents do andin every bill hold.

2d. Hard hitting—the blows of the heelsbeing driven home by the force of the wingsapplied to them as the cocks rise.

3d. Rapidity in fighting—cocks may begood cutters which are not hard hitters,but disable or kill their antagonists withoutapparently striking any heavy blows.Others are what are called “wing fighters”from making a great noise and shufflingwith their wings but hardly using their legsat all. These are practically worthless.Then there are some which fight with thehead low thus exposing unduly that vul-nerable point. So a “high stationed cock,”one standing upright and keeping his headup when fighting, is desirable. Some cocksfight for the head and others aim theirblows at the body. It is a vexed questionwhich of these methods is more to be desired.Certain strains of blood have characteristicmodes of fighting and it is the aim of thescientific breeders to intensify by carefulselection and crossing the traits he mostwishes to preserve and obliterate thosewhich are undesirable. In breeding gamefowls more care has to be exercised thanwith those of inferior varieties. The high-est bred animals of any kind are the mostdifficult to rear. The race-horse whichwhen matured is the strongest and most en-during of his kind is subject to ailments andinfirmities, especially in youth, that arehardly known to the coarser breeds. It isso with highly bred dogs, cattle and gamefowls. The game cock should not be matedwith more than six or eight hens and a smallernumber than eight is preferable. The cockand hens should be in perfect health andold cocks should not be put with old hens.They should have as large a run as practic-able as they approximate wild birds intheir habits and desire to ramble and dobetter on a good range, than when coopedup. Markham says “the best season tobreed is from the increase of the moon inFebruary to the increase of the moon in

Game Cocks and Cock-fighting 3 5 5

March, for a March bird is of far greateresteem than those bred at other times.”This is the belief to the present day and acurrent superstition, especially amongstthose of the Irish nation, is that the egglaid by a game hen after she clucks andwants to sit, will produce a cock likely torun away if fought. It is well to let thegame hens set on their own eggs, thirteenbeing the most popular number notwith-standing the current belief of its unluckiness.Game hens are good layers, good sitters, andas mothers far ahead of any other breed. Ifthey can be turned loose with their broodsin a garden containing plenty of youngvegetables and fruits and insects and leftto get their own living, that is the idealhome for them and under such conditionsthey are much less liable to the variousdiseases which decimate the ranks of futurechampions of the pit. Should the gardenprove impracticable the young things shouldhave what, is next best in the way of agood run and natural food. A frequentchange of diet and cleanliness in the coopswhere they are housed and fed is very im-portant until they get well along to their firstmoulting. All of the old masters agree that“if chickens begin to crow at about sixmonths old clear and loud, or at unseasonabletimes it is a sign of cowardice and falsehood,for the true cock is very long before he canget his voice and then he observes his hours.”Early crowing is now considered a suspiciousaccomplishment. Game chickens, like others,have fights amongst themselves and some-times quite severe ones at eight or tenweeks of age.

if they are to be fought that winter all thecock chickens should have good walks andthe refining and encouraging influences offemale society. Some experts say that nogame chicken gets his full courage withoutbeing on a walk with hens for six weeksand he may still be game and fly the pitif tested at the end of a shorter period ofindependence. Markham and other oldmasters assert that a cock should not befought earlier than at two years of age,*but stags, i. e., cock chickens which havepassed their first Christmas and have beenwell walked are about as good, especiallyby springtime, as they ever are. By gen-eral concensus of opinion in the North theNew England festival of Thanksgiving andthe anniversary of the birth of Ireland’sfavorite saint mark the beginning and endof the cock-fighting season, though Fairfaxspeaking for Britain says: “The best timeto take up your cocks is the latter end ofAugust (for from that time till the latterend of May, cocking is in request).” Asthis would include the season of moulting,when the best of game cocks are so weakand depressed that they will sometimesbe unwilling to face another cock, it isprobable that Mr. Fairfax has put his datetoo early.

By these fights the mastery is settledand remains settled until after the moultingwhen the chickens begin paying attentionto the pullets. Then, if left together withhens, they will ere long fall out and theensuing battles are dangerous. If a cock runswith a lot of chickens at this season they arekept under better control, but any numberof game chickens may live peacefully infellowship if put in an enclosure, before theyget their courage, and kept there without anyfemale companionship whatever. Undersuch conditions they agree perfectly anddwell together in the greatest amity withno more idea of fighting than so many doves.The introduction of one hen, however, willdestroy for ever the harmony of the happyfamily. At six months of age, especially

Now if the owner of some game chickenswishes to fight them, in violation of thelaw, and knows or thinks he does, somesure method of evading the penalties heis to incur, and can learn of some surrep-titious pit where his battles may be foughtwith one similarly circumstanced, what ishe to do to get his birds into action in acondition fit for them to show their fullpowers? It was unanimously agreed by allthe princes, clergy, literati, and gentry towhom we have aforetime alluded thatcocks to be fit to do battle should bejudiciously “ordered and dyeted” and the.“Country Gentleman’s Companion”, 1753,voices the public sentiment of Englandwhen it states, under the head of “Dietingof Cocks for Battle”: “In it only consistethall the ground and substance of the pleasure,the best cock undieted not being able toencounter with the worst cock that isdieted.” In the old days the time occu-pied in “dieting” was from four to eightweeks with a preponderance of authority infavor of six weeks, and a short synopsis ofone of these methods which the author says

*At two years old you may put a cock to the battle as not being before perfect and complete in everymember.—Fairfax Sportsman, 1764.

356 Game Cocks and Cock-fighting

has never before (1750) been divulged mayprove instructive. It is only fair to sayregarding this claim that every other writerof this period pretends to equal virtues forhis recipes on the subject. The cock to betreated is put in a pen at least three feetin hight and two feet square every way, andfed for three or four days on the finest,coolest and softest spring water you canget, and thrice a day, at “sunrise, highnoon and sunset, a good handful of ‘oldManchit’ without crust, cut into littlesquare bits. After four days take him andanother cock and putting a pair of hotsupon each of their heels, which hots aresoft bombasted rolls of leather coveringtheir spurs so that they cannot hurt orbruise one another, and so, setting them downon the green grass let them fight and buffetone another a good space.” After this ex-ercise “you shall take butter and rosemaryfinely chopped and white sugar candy, allmixed together and give him a lump there-of as much as your thumb.” When thisis down the cock is to be put in a “deepstraw-basket, with soft sweet straw in themiddle, then covered with sweet straw upto the top, and then lay on the lid closeand let your cock stow and sweat until theevening.” In the evening at four, “youmay take your cock out of the stow andlicking his head and eyes all over withyour tongue, put him into his pen” andgive him some bread moistened with asaline solution “to cleanse, his head andbody.” From this time to the end of his“dieting” the cock shall be fed with breadmade as follows: “You shall take of wheatmeal half a peck, and a like quantity offine oatmeal flour, mixing them togetherknead them into a stiff paste with ale, thewhite of a dozen eggs, and half a pound ofbutter; and, having wrought the doughexceedingly well make it into broad thincakes; being three or four days old and theblistering of the outside cut away, cut itinto little square bits and give it to the cock.”Every other day to the end of the firstfortnight the cock is to be sparred or “chased”which is done by “showing him a dunghillcock in your arms and run away from himenticing him to follow for half an hour atleast, suffering him now and then to havea stroke at the dunghill cock.” Aftereach of these diversions the cock is to be“stowed” in a basket as before. After thefirst fortnight he shall be fed in the same

manner, but shall only be sparred andstowed twice a week. The third fortnightthe cock shall be fed in the same way, butnot sparred at all, but “twice or thrice lethim run and chase up and down, and nowand then cuff a cock which you shall holdto him in your hands, then give him hisScouring well rolled in the powder of sugarcandy.”

“At the end of six weeks feeding, findingyour cock in lust and breath you mayfight him at your pleasure, observing thathe have at least three days rest before hefight, and well emptied of his meat beforeyou bring him into the pit.” After thisfollow several pages on “The Matching ofCocks,” showing how you may outwit youradversary or he do the same by you—“OfPreparing Cocks to the Fight” and “TheOrdering of Cocks after Battle and theCuring them.” The final paragraph of thismonition is as follows: “After you haveput forth your wounded cocks to theirwalks and come to visit them a month ortwo after, if you find about their headsany swelled bunches, hard and blackish atone end, you may know that in such bunchesare unsound cores; therefore presently withyour knife you shall open the same andsqueeze out the cores with your thumbs;then with your mouth suck out all thecorruption and fill the holes full of freshbutter which will cure them. And thusmuch for the nature of the cock and howto keep him for his best use.”

This is a rather long digression from theinstruction to the amateur anxious to em-bark properly equipped on his career ofcock-fighting. The modern methods offeeding, which he would be likely to preferto that which has just been described arequite different from it and probably pre-ferable. The time now used in feeding iseight to ten days for chickens and stags,and ten to fourteen days for cocks. Thefollowing is a synopsis of the rules of adistinguished southern feeder. They differchiefly from the northern rules in not pre-scribing cock-bread or sugar candy. Firstday the cocks when empty are given fivegrains of asafœtida each, with plenty ofwater and no food or exercise; second day,in the morning, give the cocks a table-spoonful each of scalded wheat and the sameof scalded cracked corn mixed, half theamount at noon and evening, with a littlewater, no exercise. Third day, in early

Game Cocks and Cock-fighting 3 5 7

morning, fly them five or six times, andafter half an hour rest give each cock threetablespoonfuls of oats, cracked corn, andwheat scalded, no dinner, and before feed-ing at night in the same, give them five orsix flys each. Fourth, fly eight or tentimes in morning and again in afternoon,increase feed and exercise a little if cocksare doing well. Fifth day, increase workand feed a little (the flying is done bytossing the cocks in the air two or threefeet so they will alight on a stuffed cushionin a box or barrel in front of you). This daybegin feeding the white of one boiled eggto each cock morning and night mixed withcrushed oats and crushed corn, scalded.Sixth day, spar the cocks of equal weightuntil they are blown and get to billing, ofcourse putting muffs on their heels, samework and feed as yesterday. Seventh day,work the cocks well in the morning andvery little at night, feed twice on white ofegg and cracked corn. Eighth day, muffyour cocks and spar them until they cometo billing, feed as before. Ninth day, givecocks tablespoonful of warm mush made ofsweet milk and crushed oats and twoswallows of water. They are then readyfor battle that night or the tenth day. Ifcocks are to be fought with short heels theyshould have rather more work after thefifth day. “Short heels” are gaffs of oneand one-half inches or under in length. Manyfights in the South are with ‘“long heels,”two to two and one-half inches.

When the cocks are properly preparedand brought to the pit, before fighting themthey must be “cut out” i. e., have the wingstrimmed slopeways when the wing is spreadout, the tail cut about one-third of thedistance from the end and the hackle andfeathers about the rump shortened. TheEnglish method is to also cut off the neckfeathers very closely, make the tail shorterand thinner and clip the rump almost bare,When matched, and cocks within twoounces of each other are matches, they fightaccording to the rules of the pit where theymay be, and they vary considerably, therebeing three distinct sets of rules in theUnited States and Canada, another inEngland, still another in France and Bel-gium, where the sport is beginning to gainfoothold. These rules are all modeled onthe English ones and are too lengthy forthe compass of this paper. In substance,the cocks are laid down after having been

allowed to bill each other three or fourtimes and are not touched by the handlersunless one is fast in the other or in thecarpet or sides of the pit. When one cockrefuses to fight the handler of the othercan count ten aloud five times and at theend of the fifth time the cocks are placedbreast to breast in the center of the pit.If the cock still refuses, the handler cancount ten aloud five times more and if thebird does not then fight he loses the battle.If he makes so much as a peck, however,during the counting the other cock getsno advantage.

A curious custom prevails at the presentday taken from an old English one, whichreads as follows: “If during a battle anyperson offers to bet ten pounds to a crown,or throws his hat, glove or handkerchiefinto the pit which is so understood thoughnot a word is spoken, the teller immediatelybegins to tell forty in a deliberate manner,which being done he proclaims ‘ten poundsto a crown is offered, will anybody take it?will anybody take it?’ No reply beingmade the battle is won by the cock uponwhom the odds were offered. A hand-kerchief, hat or glove thrown in the pitindicates acceptance of the ‘pound’ for soit is called in England, and also here wherea pound is $20 against $1, and any articlethrown in the pit as in England, indicatesthat a cock is ‘pounded.’” Another cus-tom which formerly prevailed in Englandhas not crossed the Atlantic. “Personsmaking bets in a pit which they were after-wards unable or unwilling to pay weredrawn up in a basket over the pit by pul-leys where they remained suspended duringthe play.”

There is a long article in Pierce Eagan’s“Book of Sports,” in which is detailedin a very interesting manner, a night’svisit to the Cock-pit Royal. The eruditeDr. Maginn in “John Manesty” has a chap-ter on cock-fighting well worth reading. Anyone, no matter how virtuous, if he wantsgame fowls to ornament his estate, and nodomestic bird is so handsome as a fullplumaged game cock, would prefer to havesuch as he knows to be highly bred, and freefrom dunghill strain. Let such reflect thatif cock-fighting were abolished throughoutthe world his immediate descendants wouldprobably be unable to procure game fowlsanywhere and the breed would inevitablybecome extinct.