ORDER GALLINyE. 181 



domestication of this useful bird to date from those remote 

 periods. Under the reign of that great prince, who ruled 

 with so much glory over the tribes of Israel, we have seen 

 that the peacock constituted an acquisition worthy of being 

 enumerated in the list of riches imported into Judea by his 

 adventurous fleets. As this discovery of the peacock was 

 made in the time of Solomon, it cannot be deemed very extra- 

 ordinary to suppose, that the cock, which inhabits the same 

 countries as that bird, should about the same time have 

 attracted the attention of the Hebrews. 



Be this as it may, it is quite certain that the cock, as well 

 as the peacock, has been transported by man into the diffe- 

 rent countries in which these species exist at the present day 

 in a state of domestication. They are now propagated 

 through every country of the globe. 



The cock and hen are, of all domestic birds, those which 

 to us are of the greatest utility. They pay us with usury 

 for all the cares expended on their reproduction. But man, 

 not contented with the profit and enjoyment which he can 

 innocently derive from these birds, has made them, by a 

 capricious and cruel taste, the subject of his barbarous amuse- 

 ments. Cockfighting, so common in the East, has also con- 

 stituted one of the refined diversions of the civilized nations 

 of the West. It is with shame we own, that our own coun- 

 trymen have been the most prominent patrons of this low, 

 cruel, and irrational sport. It does not, perhaps, at present 

 engage, to so great an extent as formerly, the patronage of the 

 high born, and the fashionable. It does not flourish, as it 

 once did, under the auspices of kings. It is remarkable 

 enough, that some of the most worthless and imbecile of the 

 English princes have been precisely the greatest encouragers 

 of this sport. Henry the Eighth established a cockpit ; James 

 the First delighted in the amusement, and it was a favourite 

 recreation of his profligate grandson, Charles the Second. 



