MENTAL TRAITS IN THE POULTRY-YARD. 627 



positions reversed, after a bloody struggle. In this test the dif- 

 ference in disposition was exactly what it would have been in hu- 

 man beings under like conditions. Some were eager to venture a 

 peck at the apparently yielding tyrant, and would quickly jump 

 at the conclusion that he was overthrown. But the confidence 

 with which a cockerel of this sort chased his indignant but hun- 

 gry master was only exceeded by the briefness of his resistance 

 when the outraged victim of our tricks was allowed to turn and 

 fight. Young roosters of another stamp could only rarely be de- 

 ceived into mistaking the movements of a superior in rank, but 

 when, after long and careful manoeuvring, in which the one of us 

 whose business it was to keep away a swarm of hungry spectators 

 generally grew very tired, the subject did conclude that he had 

 somehow changed places with his former tyrant, there was a fierce 

 fight, and the rebel often won. It was the old story of the terrors 

 of pugnacity, hard to arouse, and the strength of purposes slowly 

 formed. 



It is in fighting that some of the most curious traits are mani- 

 fested by fowls of all kinds. Notice the coops of Cochins and 

 brahmas in a poultry-show, and you will find many of the cocks 

 with combs bloody and scarred from pecking one another's heads. 

 They thrust their necks out between the side of the coop and the 

 • first slat in front and clumsily punish each other. In long rows 

 of coops of games, placed in exactly the same way, not a peck 

 is given. It is not that the slow and easily whipped Asiatics are 

 fonder of fighting than the ideal gladiators of the animal world, 

 but simply that no game-cock will put himself at a disadvantage 

 by getting his head in reach first. When game-cocks look out, it is 

 through one of the middle spaces. Fighting is too serious a busi- 

 ness with these high-spirited birds to be mixed with foolishness. 

 Other breeds than games, however, occasionally produce natural 

 fighters that show remarkable cunning. A light and graceful 

 young dominique, one of the proudest and most intelligent of our 

 pets, belonged to a neighbor, but was very fond of coming over to 

 a barn-yard which was about as near his home as the house 

 where we boarded. He was very reluctant to endure punishment 

 in fights, but he was also loath to retreat before any antagonist, 

 and dearly loved to have us feed him and "bide and doctor 

 wi' 'im," as the Devonshire farm-hand put it. The consequence 

 was, that he would try a round with any foe, and if he found him- 

 self overmatched he generally managed to retreat with a brave 

 show of fight and get off without much loss of blood or prestige. 

 One day he was attacked by a turkey, and at the very beginning 

 of the combat he happened to light on its back. No descendant 

 of the race which lived, in a wild state, in terror of the downward 

 swoop of the great horned owl, can bear to be attacked from 



