GAME FOWLS. 125 



ful, rustling wings, and nervous heels, in one furious, confused mass. 

 The leap, the fire, the passion of strength, the certaminis gaudia, were 

 fierce and loud ; the parting was another kind of thing, every way. 

 I can compare the sound of the first flight to nothing less than that of 

 a wet umbrella forced suddenly open. The separation was death- 

 like ; the yellow, or rather the ginger bird, staggered out of the 

 close, drooping, dismantled, bleeding ; he was struck. 



Fleming and J^ash severally took their birds, examined them for a 

 moment, and then set them again opposite to each other. The hand- 

 ling of the cocks was as delicate as if they had been made of foam, 

 froth, or any other most perishable matter. Fleming's bird staggered 

 towards his opponent, but he was hit dreadfully, and ran like a 

 drunken man tottering on his breast, sinking back on his tail while 

 Nash's, full of fire and irritated courage, gave the finishing stroke, 

 that clove every particle of life in twain. The brave bird thus killed, 

 dropped at once from the "gallant bearing and proud mien," to the 

 relaxed, draggled, motionless object, that lay in bleeding ruin on the 

 mat. I sighed and looked thoughtful, when the tumult of the betters 

 startled me into a consciousness of the scene at which I was present. 



The victor cock was carried by me in all his pride, slightly scarred, 

 but evidently made doubly fierce and muscular by the short encoun- 

 ter he had been engaged in. He seemed to have grown double the 

 size; his eves were larger. 



The paying backward and forward of money, won and lost, occu- 

 pied the time until the two Nashes again descended with another cock. 



Sometimes the first blow was fatal ; at another time the contest 

 was long and doubtful, and the cocks showed all the obstinate courage, 

 weariness, distress, and breathlessness which marks the struggle of 

 experienced pugilists. I saw the beak open, the tongue palpitate, 

 the wing drag on the mat; I noticed the legs tremble, and the body 

 topple over upon the breast ; the eye grow dim, and even a perspira- 

 tion break out upon the feathers of the back. When the battle lasted 

 long, and the cocks lay helpless near or upon each other, one of the 

 feeders counted ten, and the birds were separated and set-to at the 

 chalk. If the beaten bird does not fight while forty is counted, and 

 the other pecks, or shows signs of battle, the former is declared con- 

 quered. 



The cocks were the next object of curiosity. A covering was hung 

 before each pen, so that I heard, rather than saw the cocks ; but it 

 was feeding time, and I beheld innumerable rocky beaks and spark- 

 ling eyes at work in the troughs ; and the stroke of the beak, in 

 taking up the barley, was like the knock of a manly kmickle on the 

 table. Old N"ash WM mixing bread and milk for his feathered family. 



