FABLE AND FOLKLORE 45 



the great black capercaille, a bold, handsome bird of 

 the mountain forests, noted for its habit in spring of 

 mounting a prominent tree and issuing a loud challenge to 

 all rivals ; and one of its gaudy feathers is still the favor- 

 ite ornament for his hat of the Tyrolean mountaineer. 

 By the way, the cockade, that figured so extensively as 

 a badge in the period of the French Revolution was so 

 called because of its resemblance to a cock's comb. 



Now comes a break of several centuries in the record, 

 illuminated by only a brief note in La Rousse's Encyclo- 

 pedic, that in 12 14, after the Dauphin du Viennois had 

 distinguished himself in combat with the English, an 

 order of knights was formed styled L'Ordre du Coq; and 

 that a white cock became an emblem of the dauphins of 

 the Viennois line. 



The cock did not appear as a blazon when, after the 

 Crusades, national coats-of-arms were being devised; 

 nevertheless the le coq de France was not forgotten, for 

 it was engraved on a medal struck to celebrate the birth 

 of Louis XIII ( 1 60 1 ) . Then came the Revolution, when 

 the old regime was overthrown; and in 1792 the First 

 Republic put the cock on its escutcheon and on fts flag 

 in place of the lilies of the fallen dynasty. When this 

 uprising of the people had been suppressed, and Napoleon 

 I had mounted the throne, in 1804, he substituted for it 

 the Roman eagle, which he had inherited from his con- 

 quests in Italy and Austria, and which was appropriate 

 to his ambitious designs for world domination. This re- 

 mained until Napoleon went to Elba, and then Louis 

 XVIII brought back for a short time the Bourbon lilies ; 

 yet medals and cartoons of the early Napoleonic era 

 depict the Gallic cock chasing a runaway lion of Castile 

 or a fleeing Austrian eagle, showing plainly what was 



