296 The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



Reds, Jersey Nub-combs, Wild Irish, Baker White-legs, Conkeys, &c. He gives, besides, a list of 

 more than thirty approved crosses between these supposed distinct strains ; and bitterly inveighs 

 against any in-breeding as ruinous to vigour and all other qualities valued by the cocker, a con- 

 clusion in which he will be opposed by universal British experience, as even the old fighting strains 

 of English Game fowls had been perfected by the closest in-breeding in many cases. Dr. Cooper 

 seems to give the preference to the so-called "Tartar" strain, of which, indeed, he seems from his 

 work to be the special proprietor ; and describes even the pure stock as breeding alike Black-reds, 

 Reds with black breasts. Blue-reds, and Brown-reds, and either green (willow), blue, or yellow legs. 

 They are very large, ranging as high even as eight pounds, a weight which would make English 

 cockers stare ; but there is no doubt they are hard and stubborn fighters. Of late, however, as we 

 know from reliable and independent sources, the most highly-prized breeds for fighting in the 

 States are those known as Claibornes (sometimes called Mobiles), and Heathwoods. The Clai- 

 bornes were formed, it is said, by crossing the English breed known as Lord Sefton's (a Black-red), 

 with Spanish-bred hens, and are remarkable for the hens almost always having long and sharp 

 spurs, while the weapons of the cock are so.keen that the birds are often fought naturally, instead 

 of being armed with steel. Mr. Hcath oott a strain is described by a notorious American cocker o( 

 the present day as the best he knows ; but these, again, are said to be " bred in all the usual 

 colours," showing great mixture of blood. 



^ The Game fowls known in India have been already alluded to as very generally resembling 

 'somewhat the Malay type ; but it is not meant to be asserted that they are really identical with 

 the Malay. The best breeds possess much of the " Game" courage, in which the Malay is always 

 deficient, and have moreover a "style" about them which no Malay ever had. It is very easy for 

 such shallow naturalists as we have already alluded to to assume that such birds have been 

 produced by crossing the Galliis Bankiva, or English Game, with the Malay ; but all who know 

 anything from trustworthy witnesses of Indian cock-fighting are aware that generations before any 

 English Game could have been known in Eastern Asia, fighting breeds of the same type as now 

 known were bred and fought. As we have before hinted, to say in the course of a professed 

 "inquiry" into the origin of the domestic fowl that either these or the Malay itself have merely 

 been formed by "domestication" from the smaller and quite different Galliis fcrruginctis, is simply 

 to take for granted the very question in debate, without the shadow of a reason for the assumption, 

 except that no wild breed like the Malay or Indian Game is said to have been found — an 

 assertion, by the way, which is itself as yet very far from being certainly accurate in point of fact. 

 The whole subject is beset with difficulties which forbid, as we have before said, any attempt 

 to discuss it here ; and we shall only add a few particulars as to the various kinds of Indian Game. 

 The birds known by this name in Devon and Cornwall are undoubtedly bred from Indian 

 importations, and, as we have stated in the last chapter, present the Malay type in some points 

 very strongly, being chiefly wanting in the peculiar " sharp " shoulders so characteristic of 

 that breed. They are, however, harder in flesh as well as in feather, and some of them are 

 of undoubted courage. Mr. Montressor has shown some fine specimens, in which those undefined 

 characters which all fanciers unconsciously recognise as showing " good blood " are strongly 

 marked. These birds generally stand rather low, are agile and active, and have been known in 

 India (and we believe in Cornwall too) to stand up well occasionally against good English blood. 

 They are the prevalent style of bird kept in the neighbourhood of Bengal, and, indeed, more or 

 less throughout the whole continent of India. Some of them are of great endurance, and such 

 birds have been known to realise as much as 700 rupees ; indeed, often no sum whatever will 

 purchase them. 



