214 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE GAME FOWL. 



Or all the varieties of Domestic Fowls, except, perhaps, the 

 Smooth-legged Bantam, the Game Fowl is the most symmetri- 

 cal. It is more slender in the body, the neck, the bill, and the 

 legs, than other kinds, and the various hues of the plumage are 

 more brilliant and showy. Their flesh is white, compact) like 

 that of the race-horse as compared with the scrub, delicate, 

 and very nutritious ; but the extreme difficulty of rearing the 

 Chickens, owing to their natural pugnacity, which shows it- 

 self at a very early period, deters most breeders, excepting 

 those who breed for the cock-pit. " Whole broods, scarcely 

 feathered, are sometimes stone-blind from fighting, to the very 

 smallest individuals : the rival couples moping in corners, and 

 renewing their battles on obtaining the first ray of light." 

 The game Eggs are rather smaller than common, but finely- 

 shaped, and extremely rich and delicate. The weight of this 

 Fowl is from 3| to 5j Ibs., though I have heard of 8 Ibs., and 

 my friend, Win. Witar, Esq., near German town, assures me 

 that he has a Game Cock, thorough-bred, that now weighs 

 9 Ibs. The practice of fighting Cocks is supposed to be of 

 Grecian origin. It was adopted by the Romans about 470 

 years before the Christian era. For the gratification of the 

 curious in this matter, I will extract, from a work recently 

 published in Ireland, the following account of Cocking : 



It is not particularly known when the pitched battle was 



