THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 93 



" Why, to tell you the truth," returned Hargrave, " I 

 think that, next to finding a fox, the excitement produced 

 at the onset of a battle between cocks, exceeds any that I 

 have hitherto experienced. I, therefore, must say I am 

 very partial to cock-fighting as a sport or pastime. But I 

 cannot help looking at it in another light. It appears to 

 me that, from the very extraordinary circumstances and 

 facts developed in pursuance of the whole system from 

 the breeding the birds, to bringing them to the pit to 

 fight, as well as their conduct in the fight it must have 

 been intended to excite the curiosity, and promote the 

 researches of man in the wonderful operations of nature ; 

 if not, in this individual instance, to serve as an example 

 to be imitated in certain situations in life. For instance, 

 consider the form of what we so properly call the game- 

 cock : he is not only, as you have described him, composed 

 of little else but muscle and bone ; but, looking at his 

 ruddy complexion, his full breast, his lofty neck, the 

 strength of the beam of his leg, and length of his thigh, 

 his large quick eye, and strong beak crooked and big at 

 its setting on and his murderous spurs, it is evident that 

 he was intended to fight. But why so ? why 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 evi- 

 dent was designed to be domesticated. The fact is, he 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 fact, 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 

 frequent of every other inhabitant, but there is no instance, 

 except in the cock, of a desire to exterminate their own 

 species." 



"Then you really believe it was intended that the 



