A TRUE BILL. 171 



to receive the enemy a I'ontrance, be lie who he may, he is the first 

 himself, in Yankee phrase, to skedaddle and make tracks for a place 

 of security and shelter, leaving his hens to their fate. Our bill of 

 indictment contra gallum, the reader may say, is a heavy one, but it 

 is in the main very true, as any one who chooses may satisfy him- 

 self when he has the opportunity. How, then, do we account for 

 it 1 Well, it is very difficult satisfactorily to account for it in any 

 way. We are inclined to the belief that the demoralisation of our 

 domestic cock is to be traced to the introduction into our country 

 of such splay-footed, loutish, awkward fowls as the " Cochin 

 China," " Bramahpootra " et hoc omne genus, whose brains seem to 

 have subsided into the feathers on their feet, and whose only good 

 quality is their size, and even that is dearly purchased, we suspect, 

 when the immense feeding they require is taken into account. 

 These fowls have spread everywhere, so that, except in some 

 out-of-the-way localities, a cook or hen of the old native breed, of 

 blood pure and uncontaminated by foreign intermixture, is very 

 rarely to be met with, while cross-breeds and mongrels of every 

 shape and size are abundant in all directions. Whatever the good 

 qualities of these latter in other respects, courage, gallantry, and 

 pluck are not of the number. Just inquire into the subject for 

 yourself, good reader, and you will find that, neither physically, 

 intellectually, nor morally is the cock of the present day to be 

 compared for a moment with the gallant, handsome, proud-stepping 

 biped of your boyhood. 



