^22 TMK I'EATHElll^D TRlliES. 



battles, tliey ha\-e announced all the victories gained througliout the universe ; in a ■word, 

 they lord it over the masters of the world. Their very entrails and fibres are not less 

 agreeable to the gods than the richest victims. Their prolonged notes in the evening, 

 and at extraordinary hours, constitute presages. By crowing all night long, they 

 announced to the Boeotians a celebrated victory over the Lacedemonians ; thus did the 

 diviners interpret it, because this bird never crows when he is conquered." 



It is romai-kable that the practice of cock-hghting has prevailed among people widely' 

 separated. Thus Caj^tnin Cook discovered it in his first visit to the South Sea Islands. 

 The Rev. W. Ellis describes the Faa-ti-io-raa-moa, or literally, the causing fighting among 

 fowls, as t!ie most ancient game among the Tahitians. He states that, according to 

 the tradition of the natives, poultry have existed in the island as long as jjeople ; that 

 they either came with the first colonists, or ■n'Ol'e produced by Taaroa contemporaneoush' 

 with men. 



But long before the first foreign vessel was seen ofi' the shores of the islands of Poly- 

 nesia, the natives were in the habit of training and fighting cocks. Unlike those ^^d^o, 

 in later times, have practised among us the barbarous and cruel sport, they never trimmed 

 the flowing plumes of the birds, but were proud in beholding the beautiful and gorgeous 

 combatants, with ample natural wings, full-feathered necks, and lengthened tails. 

 Neither were the birds urged to combat as they have been bj' those who regarded them- 

 selves as not merely civilised, but refined ; for as soon as one bird avoided another, he was 

 considered as vi, or beaten, and victory was declared in favour of his antagonist. 



According to 31. Temminck, our domestic cock seems to have originated from the Jago 

 ■Cock,* a very large wild species, which inhabits the Island of Sumatra, and from the 

 species Banhiva, another primitive cock, found in the forests of Java. For this opinion 

 the following reasons have been assigned : t^ resemblance of their females to our 

 domestic hens ; the size of our village cock, which is intermediate between that of the 

 Jago and Baukiva ; the nature of the feathers, and the forms and distribution of the 

 barbs, which are absolutely the same as in the domestic cock ; and because it is in those 

 two species alone that the females are provided with a crest and small barbies, characters 

 which are not found in any other of the primitive species which arc known. 



The Malay Gigantic Fowl is a native of Java and Sumatra. In its natural attitude, 

 the male bird is more than two feet in height, measuring from the top of the liead to tlie 

 groimd. It has a comb, which is thick, low, and without serrations, appearing as if it 

 had been partially cut off"; the wattles are small; and the throat is bare. Elongated 

 feathers, or haslilcs, of a pale golden-reddish colour, cover the neck, and advance iipon 

 the back ; while others, of the same land and hue, cover the rump, and drop on each side 

 of the base of the tail. The feathers of the middle' of tlic back and tlic shoulders of the 

 wings, ■which arc of a loose texture, are of a dark chestnut. The greater wing-coverts, 

 like the tail-feathers, arc of a glossy green. The limbs arc reraarlcably stout. The tarsi 

 are of a yellow colom-. The voice of this bird differs greatly from Ihe clarion-pcal of our 

 domestic fowl, for it is a sort of hoarse -and short crow. 



In some parts of continental India this bird is domesticated, and is known to Europeans 

 as the Kulm Cock, Colonel Sykes supposes that it is not a nati\-c of tliat countjy, but 

 that it was introduced by tlie ^lussulmans from Java or Sumatra. Two cocks and a hen 

 ■were brought by that gentleman into England, in June, 18:51. They bore the winter 

 well ; the hen laid freely, and soon reared two bi'oods of chickens. Tiie lien was one- 

 third smaller than the male. TIic cock has the habit, when (ircd, of resting on tlie lirst 

 joint of tlie leg. Other specin;ens of (liis gigantic race have been brimglil into this 

 count r}'. 



' (illllUH (Jl<Mllttll!>. 



