CHANTICLEER 237 



his musical career would be cut short by an early 

 death, since the ten birds were very much alike 

 in other respects, and I felt perfectly sure that 

 his superior note would weigh nothing in the 

 balance. For when has the character of the voice 

 influenced a fancier in selecting? Never I be- 

 lieve, odd as it seems. I have read a very big 

 book on the various breeds of the fowl, but the 

 crowing of the cock was not mentioned in it. This 

 would not seem so strange if fanciers had invar- 

 iably looked solely to utility, and their highest 

 ambition had ended at size, weight and quality 

 of flesh, early maturity, hardihood, and the 

 greatest number of eggs. This has not been the 

 case. They possess, like others, the love of the 

 beautiful, artificial as their standards sometimes 

 appear; and there are breeds in which beauty 

 seems to have been the principal object, as, for 

 instance, in several of the gold and silver spangled 

 and pencilled varieties. But, besides beauty of 

 plumage, there are other things in the fowl 

 worthy of being improved by selection. One of 

 these has been cultivated by man for thousands of 

 years, namely, the combative spirit and splendid 

 courage of the male bird. But there is a spirit 



