86 COCKER S MANUAL. 



and any cock excluding one-fourth ounce of the weight he was 

 matched for loses the battle. 



A set weight main is one where each party names the weight of 

 eleven cocks, more or less between certain specified weights, and his 

 opponent must find cocks to match them. They then toss for choice 

 of weight for odd battle which the loser must match, and they usually 

 meet aiid fight fourteen or twenty days after choosing weights. 



A Welch main is sixteen cocks under a certain weight are weighed, 

 and the lightest pair matched to fight, and so upwards until eight bat- 

 tles are fought. The eight winners are matched and make four 

 battles, and the four winners make two battles, and the two winners 

 fight for the purse cup or stakes. 



A main Royal is when any number of cocks under a certain weight 

 are thrown on the sod together, and the last cock fighting takes the 

 stakes. This, according to the Rey. Dr. Robert Wild, the historian, 

 poet, wit, divine and cocker, is of Dutch origin. The Doctor, al- 

 though a minister, was an enthusiastic cocker, and wrote the best poem 

 on the subject in the English language. At one time he and another 

 preached probationary sermons for the rectorship of Aynho, in North- 

 amptonshire, and a friend some time after asked him which had re- 

 ceived the living, he replied, "We divided it ; I took the ayes and my 

 rival the nays." 



There is sometimes fought what is termed a shake-bag or turn-out 

 main. Each party get a specified number of the largest cocks they 

 can and proceed to fight them without weighing' Indeed, weighing 

 cocks at all is of comarpative modern date, as cocks were formerly 

 matched by length, girth, strength, etc. 



Setting is the most difficult art in the whole routine of cocking. 

 Hundreds think they can set a cock when they know no more of the 

 art than a cock knows of his father. An old author has said, "A set- 

 ter should have a ladle's hand, a hawk's eye, a fox's head and a lion's 

 heart." A cock should be handled as tenderly as if he were foam, or 

 some equally as perishable matter. Yet how often do we see men 

 roughly handle cocks in distress. He should not only be quick to 

 see any hurt to his own bird but to his opponent's, and thus reckoa 

 where to force the fighting or slacken it. A cool, calculating head is 

 indispensable. From thirty to sixty guineas were formerly paid to 

 some of our cock-setters for a good main, and Stradling, Gladdish, 



