COCKCll AKKK 



COCK-FIGHTING 



circle of Edinburgh society in the first four decades 

 of the HHIi century. Withal they illustrate his 

 love of nature and veneration for iintii|uity. 



Cockchafer ( Wi-luluntkn rn/i/in-i.'i), a coninion 

 beetle of tin- LamelUwra section, t4M well known 

 in Europe for iis voracious destruction of Ixith 

 <TO|>S ami foliage. It is a comjiaratively large 

 hectic, ahnui an inch in length; generally of a 

 reddish-brown colour; with line hairs, scanty on 

 the wiim covers, but thick on the breast; ami with 

 the expanded ends of its feelers divided in the 

 leaflet-like manner characteristic of Lamellicorns. 

 I n Scotland they are less abundant than in England. 



The males appear first, usually in the month of 

 May, and are soon joined by their partners. They 

 lly with a whirring noise, and being hungry as 

 well as active, do great damage to many of our 

 common trees. After some weeks of flight, the 

 females heavy with eggs deposit these in the 

 ground and thereafter die. In a month or so the 

 fame develop, but do not attain winged life for 



Cockchafer (Mdolontha vulgaris) : 

 a, full-grown larva ; 6, pupa ; c, perfect insect. 



four years. Meanwhile they are anything but 

 idle, are in fact most voracious, and do great 

 damage to crops and herbage. In some years when 

 the conditions are unhappily favourable, they 

 commit ravages estimated in millions. In the 

 fourth vear of larval life the young beetles bury 

 themselves, and fall for two months into the usual 

 quiescence of the pupa stage. The liberated insect 

 works its way to the surface, and takes its flight 

 in the spring of the fifth year. In warm seasons 

 and regions the period of larval life may be 

 shortened. The adults do most of their disastrous 

 work in the twilight. The only riddance seems to 

 be the exposure of the larvie by harrowing, and the 

 dot ruction of youn and old bv every possible 

 means. Hooks and other birils, insectivorous 

 animals, and other beetles help to reduce their 

 numbers. They have oftener been plagues on the 

 Continent than in Britain, but in 1574 their corpses 

 are said to have clogged mill-wheels on the Severn, 

 and in 1688 they clung like swarming bees on the 

 trees and hedges in Galway. Melolontha hippo- 

 caxtuni is another very destructive European 

 species. The May bug of the United States 

 1 1. >< i-li n i sterna quercina) is an allied form of similar 

 habits. 



Cocker. See SPANIEL. 



Cocker* EDWARD, schoolmaster and author, 

 wa^ horn in 1631, and died in London in 1675. 

 His book on arithmetic was the first English 

 work of the kind really adapted to commercial 

 life, and became so widely known that the 

 125 



name of Cocker in as indissolubly associated 

 with accuracy in figures a* that of Murray with 

 the rules of grammar. He attained considerable 

 success as a teacher of arithmetic and writing in 

 I. Minion, and is mentioned repeatedly in Pepys's 

 Diary, who equalities him as ' very ingenious 

 and well read in all our English poets.' Cocker 

 published over thirty works on writing or 

 arithmetic, but the famous book so often reprinted, 

 Cocker's Arithmetic^, was posthumous, being dated 

 1678, and edited by John Hawkins. De Morgan 

 has contended, apparently on insufficient grounds, 

 that this bonk, which passed through 1 12 editions, 

 was not really Cocker's work at all. Among other 

 works publislied under his name are an English 

 dictionary, and the Muses' Spring Garden, which 

 contains some quaint verses of his own composi- 

 tion. 



Cockerill, JOHN, manufacturer, born in Lanca- 

 shire in 1790, was the son of William Cockerill 

 (1759-1832), an inventor and machinist who in 

 1807 settled at Liege in Belgium. John, with an 

 elder brother, succeeded to their father's business 

 in 1812, established a woollen factory in Berlin in 

 1815, and in 1817 founded the famous works at 

 Seraing (q.v.). He died at Warsaw, 19th June 

 1840 ; in 1867 his remains were brought to Seraing, 

 where his statue was erected in 1871. 



CockeriUOUtllj a town of Cumberland, 25 

 miles SW. of Carlisle, and 12 NW. of Keswick. 

 It is pleasantly situated in an agricultural district, 

 and has a walk a mile long beside the Derwent. A 

 ruined castle, founded towards the close of the llth 

 century, crowns a bold height on the left bank of 

 the Cocker, near its influx to the Derwent. It 

 became Mary Stuart's prison in 1568, and in 1648 

 was dismantled by the parliamentarians. Near 

 Cockermouth is a tumulus, Toot's Hill ; and at 

 Pap Castle are remains of a Roman camp. Words- 

 worth was born here in an old-fashioned house, 

 still standing. Pop. ( 1 88 1 ) 5354 ; ( 1 89 1 ) 5464. Till 

 1867 Cockermouth returned two members to parlia- 

 ment ; till 1885 (when it was incorporated in the 

 county), one. 



Cock-fighting was common among both the 

 Greeks and the Romans, as to-day it is common in 

 India, the Malay countries, and Spanish America. 

 In England it flourished for fully six centuries, 

 the cockpit at Whitehall having been erected 

 and patronised by royalty. In 1709 a German 

 visitor to London describes the Gray's Inn cock- 

 pit as ' round like a tower, and inside just like 

 a theatrum anatomicum, the benches rising all 

 round;' with the scene at a cock-fight Hogarth 

 has made us familiar. Cock-fighting was prohibited 

 in 1365, in 1654, and in 1849 ; but it is still some- 

 times practised in spite of prohibition. Newspaper 

 readers are familiar with paragraphs on cock-hgjits 

 interrupted by the police, and fines are from time 

 to time indicted. 



The favourite breed of fighting-cocks is the 

 gamn-fowl (see POULTRY), and very large sums 

 nave been given for chicks. Much art is dis- 

 plaved in the training of cocks, and in trimming 

 and preparing the cock for the combat ; the 

 fastening on of the spurs is a matter of consider- 

 able experience. Young cocks arc called stags ; 

 two years is the best age. In fighting a match, 

 a certain number of cocks to be shown on either 

 side is agreed upon, and the day before the match 

 the cocks are shown, weighed with the greatest 

 nicety, and matched according to their weights. 

 Their marks are all also carefully set down to 

 prevent trickery. The cocks within an ounce of 

 each other in weight are said to ' fall in,' and are 

 matched. Those which do not fall in are matched 

 to fight what are called 'byes.' Those which do 



