80 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



the Gallo Giro in the corner is a 3.8. For the enhghten- 

 ment of the uninitiated let me explain that the terms 

 employed are those used to designate the birds by their 

 colour. Thus Zamho means a black-red, Canaguey is 

 equivalent to the English Pile, and Giro to the yellow 

 Duckwing.' In Venezuela the fighting weight of the 

 gamecock rarely exceeds four pounds, the weights ranging 

 as a rule from that down to three pounds, so that when 

 a trainer says 3.10 in particularising some bird he means 

 that his fighting weight is three pounds and ten ounces, 

 but he considers it superfluous to mention the pounds 

 and the ounces. 



On the third or fourth day after the birds have been 

 taken in, the trainer arranges sparring matches between 

 those of similar size. The spurs of the sparrers having 

 been carefully covered with wadding or cork, so that no 

 severe wound may be inflicted during the trial, they are 

 allowed to hammer away at each other for some time in 

 much the same manner as prizefighters do with the gloves 

 when they are preparing for a serious engagement with 

 the naked fist. This operation, which is called topar, serves 

 to give some idea of the powers of each bird. After this 

 the training is carried on regularly for a period ranging 

 from four to six weeks, when the bird is ready for the pit. 

 Although there may be slight differences in unimportant 

 details in different districts, the system of preparing cocks 

 for the pit is in the main much the same all over Vene- 

 zuela and Colombia. At daybreak the birds are bathed 



' It would take a whole vocabulary to express the names of all the 

 colours by which gamecocks are known in Venezuela. The hencocks or 

 hennies alone, which are of every shade of colour and variety of marking, 

 would fill a long list. In Spanish -America, so far as I have been able to 

 learn, cocks are not bred true to colour and no weight appears to be 

 attached to this point, the saying being that no good cock is ever of a bad 

 colour. 



