THE GAME FOWLS. 471 



attack of whooping-cough, and that will afford a tolerably good notion of the crowing of this 

 Jungle Fowl. 



The head of this bird is adorned with well-developed wattles, deeply notched at the tip. 

 The beautiful hackles have already been described, with their flattened ends shining like the 

 gold coins gleaming on the dark tresses of Oriental beauties. The back and lower portions of 

 the body are deep gray, and the tail is long, arched, and beautifully colored with changing 

 hues of purple, green, and gold. The female is a smaller and very sober-looking bird, without 

 comb or wattles, and devoid of the curious horny hackles that decorate her mate. 



The Bankiva Jungle Fowl is now supposed to be the original stock of the domesticated 

 poultry. 



It is a native of Java, and the male very closely resembles the game-cock. It is a splendid 

 creature, with its light scarlet comb and wattles, its drooping hackles, its long arched tail, and 

 its flashing eye. The comb and wattles are of the brightest scarlet, the long hackles of the 

 neck and lower part of the back are tine orange-red, the upper part of the back is deep blue- 

 black, and the shoulders are ruddy chestnut. The secondaries and greater coverts are deep 

 steely-blue, and the quill-feathers of the wing are blackish-brown edged with rusty yellow. 

 The long, arched and drooping tail is blue-black glossed with green, and the breast and under 

 parts black, so that in general aspect it is very like the black-breasted red game-cock. 



The domesticated bird is of all the feathered tribe the most directly useful to man, and is 

 the subject of so many valuable treatises that the reader is referred to them for the best mode 

 of breeding, rearing, and general management of poultry. Of the most useful or remarkable 

 of the varieties of this bird we mention the following :— 



One of the most famous birds of this class is the Cochin Fowl. It is of enormous size and 

 ungainly appearance. Nothing was talked of but Cochin China Fowls, and the sums given 

 in Europe for these birds, some few years ago, almost rose to the fabulous. A first-rate 

 hunter, or three or four valuable cows, or a tolerable flock of sheep might have been purchased 

 for the money that was freely given for a single Cochin China Fowl. 



The Game Fowls, certainly the finest of all the varieties, we describe in the following 

 lines. The time has now almost passed away, when these splendid birds were openly trained 

 for combat, and cock-fights were held in every village and town. The law has rightly pro- 

 hibited this savage amusement, and cock-fighting, like dog-fighting, is now confined to a small 

 and continually decreasing knot of sporting men. For this purpose, the birds are trained in 

 the most regular and scientific manner, as great pains being taken about them as about a race- 

 horse on the eve of the Derby. In order to deprive the antagonist of the advantage which it 

 would gain by pecking the comb, which is very tender and bleeds freely, the comb was cut off 

 and the horny spurs were replaced by steel weapons, long, sharp-edged, and pointed. These 

 precautions were, after all, not so barbarous as they seem on a first view, for the comb was 

 " dubbed " at so early an age that its growth was prevented rather than its substance mangled, 

 and the substitution of metal for horny spurs served to set the combatants on more equal 

 terms, just as a sword sets a small man on an equality with a large one. Irrespective of these 

 advantages, the Game-cock is an hereditary gladiator, delighting in combat, and instinctively 

 practising the art of defence as well as that of assault, So superior is it to the ordinary breeds 

 in these respects, that I have seen a little, old, one-eyed Game-cock cut down, as if with a 

 sword, a great, swaggering barn-door cock that looked as if it could have killed its puny 

 antagonist with a blow and eaten him afterwards. 



There seems to be no limits to the courage of the Game-cock, which will attack not only 

 his own kind, but any other creature that may offend it. One of these birds has been known 

 to fly at a fox that was carrying off one of his wives, and to drive his spur deep into the 

 offender's eyes. There are instances innumerable of similar rescues from cats, rats, and other 

 marauders. Sometimes, however, the Game-cock takes upon himself to defend certain locali- 

 ties, and then often becomes dangerous. One such bird, of whose ferocity I have often had 

 personal proof, was accustomed to parade, with the air of an emperor, the yard in which he 

 was necessarily confined, and would fly at every living being that came within the prohibited 



