THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



figlit. But why so ? — wliy should he be armed with such 

 murderous weapons, and endowed with such formidable strength 

 and courage, merely to protect himself, or his own race, from 

 others of his own race ? There can be no reason at all for this 

 in an animal which it is evident was designed to be domesti- 

 cated. The fact is, lie is born a fighter, and absolutely begins 

 to spur at an adversary soon after he leaves the egg; at all 

 events, before his spurs are grown. Putting him to fight, then, 

 is not having recourse to a force against nature, but an evident 

 indulgence of his natural propensity, for there can be no offence 

 given to him by the bird pitted against him, which he has 

 never seen till taken out of his bag. This is also proved by 

 the well-known facts, that cocks at their walks, and at full 

 liberty, will seek each other for battle as far as they can hear 

 each other's crowing. In fact, there appears to be in them an 

 insatiable thirst to destroy each other, which does not appear in 

 other parts of the creation. We hear of carnivorous animals 

 depopulating the places they fre(pient of every inhabitant, but 

 there is no instance, except in the cock, of a desire to exter- 

 minate their own species.' 



' Then you really believe it was intended that the courage of 

 these birds should be displayed to man as an example ? ' 



' I do.' 



' And in the method pursued in Bob Dolly's cockpit ? ' 



' Ah, there you press me too hard now. I can only say that, 

 if they do fight at all, the arming them with artificial weapons 

 is the very reverse of cruelty, for the contest is sooner ended, 

 and their sufferings trifling in comparison to what they would 

 have been, had they fought with their own natural weapons, 

 by lacerating and bruising each other in every tender part. 

 And hence may be formed a comparison between the duellist 

 and the pugilist. The duellist meets his adversary like the 

 gamecock, voluntarily, and with artificial weapons also ; whereas 

 the pugilist is urged to fight merely by a prospect of gain, 

 and to fight with natural weapons, receiving blows and bruises, 

 frequently to the very point of death, to amuse a crowd of 

 spectators. I am inclined, then, to think that, after all, cock- 

 fighting is one of the least cruel of all our sports in which 

 the lives of animals are put to the risk. But it is not so much 

 the mere act of fighting, and the display of courage in the 

 gamecock, that excite my admiration : it is, as I said before, 



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