292 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



and carriage, together with his high-beaming eye, rank 

 him in the highest class of birds." 



" All very true," said Hargrave ; " but without defend- 

 ing cock-fighting, will you show me the man who can 

 account for that early instinct which impresses young 

 animals with the notion of the situation and use of their 

 natural weapons, and of even using them before they are 

 properly formed, and at the same time can say, that the 

 display of this instinct was not given them for some good 

 purpose? I can only observe that the science of cock- 

 fighting, if I may be allowed to call it so, is one of the 

 most difficult, if not the most extraordinary of any 

 connected with the animal system. Training the race- 

 horse is A B C to it. Fancy an experienced feeder being 

 able to discern to a nicety to what extent cocks of one 

 particular breed will bear reducing in weight, and what 

 those of another. Then one man shall make his cocks 

 fight for three consecutive days with equal strength and 

 spirit, whereas his competitor cannot keep his up to the 

 mark beyond the second day. He will be at the height 

 of condition one day, and retrograde rapidly the next. 

 Again, what a strange phenomenon is this : cocks, of 

 the same blood, bred from a father and daughter, will 

 run away, whilst those from a mother and son will stay to 

 be killed piecemeal, and vice versa ! Lastly, their colour ; 

 how true to their feather are they preserved by the most 

 eminent breeders without the slightest deviation, indeed, 

 for a great number of generations ! There is a well- 

 attestea instance of this on record. An eminent breeder 

 of game-fowls had preserved an invariable production of 

 what are called black-breasted reds during fifteen years, 

 but in the sixteenth he had several light piles in one 

 hatch, or brood. No change of eggs could have taken place, 

 nor was there a possibility of the access of any other cock 

 to his hens. On looking back, however, he ascertained 

 that, five years previously to his having his original 

 breed out of Shropshire, there had been a cross of a 

 Cheshire pile in the hens. Thus, it appears, the plumage 

 had remained perfect for twenty-one years." 



"A most singular fact, undoubtedly," said Lord 

 Edmonston, " but I understand the same phenomenon 

 occasionally occurs in horses. I am told, that not only 

 does the colour often go back to a very distant cross, but 

 that a small dark-coloured spot on the hinder quarters of 



