88 A HISTORY OF 



of the world where refinement and polished manners have not entire 

 ly taken place, cock-fighting is a principal diversion. In Chinajndia, 

 the Philippine islands, and all over the East, cock-fighting is the 

 sport and amusement even of kings and princes. With us it is de- 

 clining every day ; and it is to be hoped it will in time become only 

 the pastime of the lowest vulgar. It is the opinion of many, tnat we 

 have a bolder and more valiant breed than is to be found elsewhere : 

 and some, indeed, have entered into a serious discussion upon the 

 cause of so flattering 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 imprpve the breed. Nothing it is proba- 

 ble, could do this more effectually than by crossing the strain, as it is 

 called, by a foreign mixture ; 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 impos- 

 sible for the adversary'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 equivalent to commit- 

 ting them." 



This extraordinary courage in the cock is thought to proceed from 

 his being the most salacious of all other birds whatsover. A singles 

 cock suffices for ten or a dozen hens ; and it is said of him that he 

 is the only animal whose spirits are not abated by indulgence. But 

 then he soon grows old ; the radical moisture is exhausted ; and in 

 three or four years he becomes utterly unfit for the purposes of im- 

 pregnation. " 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 bar- 

 ren : 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 JL brood of chickens 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 liber- 

 ty. It matters not much whether 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 to produce a living animal. Her nest is 

 made without any care, if left to herself; a hole scratched into the 

 ground, among a few bushes, is the only preparation she makes for 

 this season of patient expectation. Nature, almost exhausted by its 

 own fecundity, seems to inform her of the proper time for hatching, 

 which she herself testifies by a clucking note, and by discontinuing 

 *o lay. The good housewives, who often get more by their hens lay- 

 ing than by their chickens, artificially protract this clucking season, 

 and sometimes entirely remove it. As soon as their hens begins to 



