333 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



another marked point ; the hackle was scanty, and the 

 tail drooping ; whilst the general carriage was very 

 Malay. The hens were even more Malay in character 

 than the cocks, and their combs appeared warty. Of 

 these birds my friend was remarkably proud. No strain 

 could stand against them in fighting in India, and he 

 had been offered fabulous sums for them. The hardness 

 of these birds was something quite out of the common, 

 ■nd he tells me the same bird has fought four days 

 following. The method of fighting there is a test of 

 pluck and endurance, for they cut off the spur and bind 

 tape over it, so that the battle is lengthened out ; yet, 

 he says, these birds would fight day after day for the 

 time I have stated. 



Mr. Hinton believed that these birds were 

 probably a cross between English Game and 

 Malays ; but there can be httle doubt now that 

 they were Aseel, which were not known at that 

 date. The details about fighting with muffled 

 spurs are very interesting when compared with 

 those above, by an authority who really under- 

 stood Indian cock-fighting, respecting the sharp 

 and deadly character of real combat. This latter 

 was little test of endurance at all, but depended 

 upon muscle and quickness; and upon that very 

 account, as we have heard also from other 

 sources, the muffled fighting, besides, was 

 practised as training, in order to produce that 

 hardness of muscle for which the Aseel is 

 distinguished. For the modern in- 

 Aseel troduction of the breed, however, 



in fanciers are chiefly indebted to 



England. Mr. Charles F. Montresor, who 



both imported it and spread the 

 knowledge of it to the best of his ability, by 

 exhibiting, and offering classes, and in other 

 ways. 



The following notes upon Aseel are kindly 

 contributed by Sir Claud Alexander, Eart, of 

 Ballochmyle, Ayrshire, whose attachment to the 

 breed has lasted many years. 



"Aseel, as their name (which is an Indian 

 adjective meaning " highborn " or " aristocratic ") 

 denotes, are perhaps the oldest breed of domestic 

 poultry in existence, having been kept from 

 time immemorial by princes, and indeed by all 

 classes in India, for fighting. How well they 

 have been selected and bred for this purpose, 

 will soon be apparent to anyone who takes them 

 up ; for so inborn in them is the spirit of 

 combativeness that even tiny chickens, before 

 they have exchanged their down for feathers, 

 will fight to the bitter end, while the introduction 

 of a new hen into a pen always leads to many 

 bloody heads, and often to more serious damage 

 in the shape of broken beaks and blinded eyes. 

 This, from the point of view of the English 

 exhibitor, is their greatest drawback; for even 

 when a goodly number of promising chickens 

 have been hatched, no amount of care will 



prevent some of them from being ruined for 

 the show-pen by their brothers and sisters. 

 Added to this, although their plump breasts and 

 freedom from oftal make them excellent table 

 birds, they are bad layers, and the hens cannot 

 be depended on to lay more than eight or at 

 most a dozen eggs each. Considering all this. 

 it is, perhaps, not to be wondered at that many 

 who have set themselves up with a stock of this 

 variety, have given them up in despair, and been 

 glad to exchange the mangled remnants of their 

 carefully collected pen for a more peaceable 

 breed. Even as I write, my two best pullets 

 are dead, lying slain by a sister of the same 

 hatch ; yet oddly enough Aseel show little or 

 no inclination to fight with other breeds, though 

 in every individual of their own race they seem 

 to see an hereditary' foe. 



" Their Indian originators have not confined 

 their efforts to cultivating the mental character- 

 istic of their birds, but have been equally careful 

 to develop them physically to the best advan- 

 tage, selecting always those hens to breed from 

 which were best suited in appearance to produce 

 fighting birds, while in the cocks, survival of the 

 fittest has been secured by the simple process of 

 fighting them incessantly. No one who has 

 seen and handled a good Aseel can fail to 

 admire the skill which has produced such 

 enormous power in so small a compass ; while 

 offal has been reduced to a minimum, and 

 dubbing rendered unnecessary ; the tiny pea- 

 comb giving no opportunity to an adversar\-, 

 and the wattles being practically non-existent. 

 For days before the battles come off, the natives 

 will argue and wrangle as to the prospects of 

 their respective favourites, and in many cases 

 before the arrangements have reached comple- 

 tion, the owners instead of the birds have come 

 to blows. 



" I am told by friends who have watched 

 these fights in India that the birds in common 

 use are of all colours, as is the case with those 

 seen at English shows. Through the kindness, 

 however, of Colonel Hallen, who probably 

 knows more about Aseel than any other Eng- 

 lishman, I obtained some birds whose parents 

 he had imported from the most carefully kept 

 collections of Indian princes, and these were all 

 either black-red or bright ginger, while a few of 

 the hens showed faint traces of the lacing to be 

 seen in our so-called Indian Game, which have 

 undoubtedly been manufactured from the more 

 ancient Aseel. Colonel Hallen informed me 

 that no other colours were admitted in the best 

 strains, and indeed he once expressed to me his 

 horror at receiving from a well-known and 

 successful English exhibitor a spangled cock of 



