6 9 



and Downrumps ; the crossing- produced 

 excellent fighting cocks, but these bred very 

 indifferent stock, slothful and inactive. He 

 attributes this and another failure to the mating 



o 



of an Active fighter with a hen of the Bull-dog 

 or the Artful class ; and uses the lesson to 

 insist upon the policy of incestuous breeding 



THE COCK FEEDER 



A great deal depended on the feeder from 

 the hour the young birds were taken up for 

 training until they were heeled for battle 



The methods of the pit afforded scope for the 

 feeder's skill. The usual system was to show 

 and weigh cocks the day but one before the 

 main began. Each bird was weighed to a 

 quarter of an ounce, and as it was to the cocker's 

 interest that his birds should weigh as light as 

 possible, the feeder brought his cocks hungry 

 to the scales. He could not risk weakening 



o 



them by drawing the birds too fine to be 

 weighed, and he dared not over-feed them after 

 they had passed the scales, lest he made them 

 unfit for battle forty-eight hours or more 

 afterwards 



The art of the feeder was shown in the skill 

 with which he could get his birds weighed at 



