THE POULTRY KIND. 



493 



ungenerous dunghill-cock, which we treat 

 with contempt. The Athenians had their 

 cock-matches as well as we: but it is pro- 

 bable they did not enter into our refinement 

 of choosing out the most barren of the spe^ 

 cies for the purposes of combat. 



However this be, no animal in the world 

 has greater courage than the cock, when op- 

 posed to one of his own species; and in 

 every part of the world where refinement and 

 polished manners have not entirely taken 

 place, cock-fighting is a principal diversion. 

 In China, India, the Philippine islands, and 

 all over the East, cock-fighting is the sport 

 and amusement even of kings and princes. 

 With us it is declining every day; and it is 

 to be hoped it will in time become only the 

 pastime of the lowest vulgar. It is the opini- 

 on of many, that we have a bolder and more 

 valiant breed than is to be found elsewhere ; 

 and some, indeed, have entered into a se- 

 rious discussion upon the cause of so flatter- 

 ing a singularity. But the truth is, they have 

 cocks in China as bold, if not bolder, than 

 ours; and, what would still be considered as 

 valuable among cockers here, they have more 

 strength with less weight. Indeed, I have 

 often wondered why men who lay two or 

 three hundred pounds upon the prowess of a 

 single cock, have not taken every method to 

 improve the breed. Nothing, it is probable, 

 could do this more effectually than by cross- 

 ing the strain, as it is called, by a foreign mix- 

 ture ; and whether having recourse even to 

 the wild cock in the forests of India would 

 not be useful, I leave to their consideration. 

 However, it is a mean and ungenerous amuse- 

 ment, nor would I wish much to promote it. 

 The truth is, I could give such instructions 

 with regard to cock-fighting, and could so 

 arm one of these animals against the other, 

 that it would be almost impossible for the ad- 

 versary's cock to survive the first or second 

 blow; but, as Boerhaave has said upon a 

 former occasion, when he was treating upon 

 poisons, " to teach the arts of cruelty is equi- 

 valent to committing them." 



This extraordinary courage in the cock is 

 thought to proceed from his being the most 

 salacious of all other birds whatsoever. A 

 single cock suffices for ten or a dozen hens ; 

 and it is said of him, that he is the only ani- 



mal whose spirits are not abated by indul- 

 gence. But then he soon grows old ; the ra- 

 dical moisture is exhausted; and in three or 

 four years he becomes utterly unfit for the 

 purposes of impregnation. " Hens also," to 

 use the words of Willoughby, " as they for 

 the greatest part of the year daily lay eggs, 

 cannot suffice for so many births, but for the 

 most part after three years become effete 

 and barren : for when they have exhausted 

 all their seed-eggs, of which they had but a 

 certain quantity from the beginning, they 

 must necessarily cease to lay, there being no 

 new ones generated within. 



The hen seldom clutches a brood of chick- 

 ens above once a season, though instances 

 have been known in which they produced 

 two. The number of eggs a domestic hen 

 will lay in the year are above two hundred, 

 provided she be well fed, and supplied with 

 water and liberty. It matters not much whe- 

 ther she be trodden by the cock or no ; she 

 will continue to lay, although all the eggs of 

 this kind can never, by hatching, be brought 

 lo produce a living animal. Her nest is made 

 without any care, if left to herself; a hole 

 scratched into the ground, among a few bush- 

 es, is the only preparation she makes for this 

 season of patient expectation. Nature, al- 

 most exhausted by its own fecundity, seems 

 to inform her of the proper time for hatch- 

 ing, which she herself testifies by a clucking 

 note, and by discontinuing to lay. The good 

 housewives, who often get more by their hens 

 laying than by their chickens, artificially pro- 

 tract this clucking season, and sometimes en- 

 tirely remove it. As soon as their hen be- 

 gins to cluck, they stint her in her provisions; 

 and if that fails, they plunge her inlo cold 

 water: this, for the time, effectually puts 

 back her hatching; but then it often kills the 

 poor bird, who takes cold, and dies under 

 the operation. 



If left entirely to herself, the hen would 

 seldom lay above twenty eggs in the same 

 nest, without attempting to hatch them: but 

 in proportion as she lays, her eggs are re- 

 moved ; and she continues to lay, vainly 

 hoping to increase the number. In the wild 

 state the hen seldom lays above fifteen eggs; 

 but then her provision is more difficultly 

 obtained, and she is perhaps sensible of 



