FIGHTING QUALIFICATIONS 295 



similar birds are really terrible weapons ; the wild 

 Jungle-Fowl is a terrible fighter for his size, and 

 his least- modified tame descendant the game- 

 cock, a professional gladiator, has even been known 

 to kill a fox, this supreme gallinaceous exploit 

 having been chronicled in a sporting magazine 

 about a hundred years ago. 



Ceylon Jungle-Fowl can beat ordinary tame 

 Fowls, and the common Indian red one has been 

 seen to thrash a Kaleege Pheasant (Gennaus), 

 which is more than a match for our Pheasants. So 

 is the little wiry Gold Pheasant, curiously enough, 

 a result which must be due to his extreme activity, 

 since his spurs are rudimentary. The springing 

 necessary in birds which fight with both feet at 

 once, as these do, gives of course a great advantage 

 to the more active bird if other qualifications are 

 anywhere near equal ; the average heavy tame 

 Cock cannot beat the common Pheasant, though 

 the Jungle-Fowl can do so. Besides the slayer of 

 Reynard, another game-cock, recorded in Teget- 

 meier's poultry- book, has won fame by killing a 

 Kite, and even the game-hen, as Wright's poultry^ 

 book relates, has been known to kill a rat, a Rook^ 

 and even a Hawk. 



As Mr. MacDonald, the pheasant-keeper at the 

 Zoo, gave me an opportunity of observing, the Glo- 

 bose Curassow Cock (Crax globicera) when attacking 

 his attendant's foot, did not strike, but gripped with 

 the claws and bit, thus showing a method of attack 

 jnore like that of a Passerine bird, and to these 



