TOULTRY. 389 



caused the common fowl to deteriorate; and in this view the 

 efforts of the fowl fancier are of great merit, because ho pro- 

 vides the means of improving the ordinary stock; and all at- 

 tempts to establish good breeds, at once hardy, white ileshed, 

 quickly fattened, and steady and abundant layers, are entitled 

 to praise. Yet our taste would hardly lead us to discard the old 

 stocks wholly and substitute the new. Especially would we not 

 give them up for any of those huge, awkward, ungainly, cow- 

 ardly, gormandizing and insatiate gluttons of the Chittagong, 

 Shanghae, Brahmapootra, Cochin and Malay races. 



Were they cocks of these hideous breeds that were conse- 

 crated to Mars, Apollo and Mercury ? Was it their doleful 

 groan that presaged the victory of Themistocles over the Per- 

 sians ? Was it a short- winged cock of these breeds that flew 

 up to the maintopsail yard of the ship of the gallant Macdon- 

 ough, and there crowed with lusty lung and clarion voice, dur- 

 ing the fury of the fight on Lake Champlain ? No, no ; it is 

 your good old clear-toned, gallant Greek, and English cock that 

 has the mettle for such daring. Why, there is but small cour- 

 age or pluck in them, and no comeliness either before or be- 

 hind, especially the latter. Their gait is awkward, and shuffling, 

 and laborious, and they waddle like an over-fat drake, yet with 

 none of his small grace of motion. Neither is there a cock 

 among the whole of them that knows how to crow as a " cock 

 of the walk" ought to crow. 



Whenever he attempts it your ears are regaled with a dole- 

 ful, long-drawled, lugubrious, droning cadence, compound of the 

 tones of a cracked Chinese gong, a stuck calf, a battered fish 

 horn, and the dismal "childish treble " of an old singer's fading- 

 bass, with a penny whistle wind-up at the end thereof. The 

 very attitude in which he crows shows that the effort distresses 

 him, from the tip of his beak to the end of all the tail he has, 

 and that tail " no great shakes " after all. Compared with 

 this, how carols to the morn the old English 



" cock's shrill clarion " {Gray's Elegy) 



of which wrote Shakspearc ! — 



" Hark ! hark ! I hear 

 The strain of chanticleer ! " 



