16 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Cock-fighting common in Sumatra. 



a rat-trap. Cannon, who was uncommonly at- 

 tached to this feathered hero, determined, if pos- 

 sible, to save his lire; and striking off the broken 

 part of the limb, he gathered up the fibres of 

 the leg, and placed his favourite securely in a 

 sling, where he attended and fed him for five 

 weeks : he then took off the bandage, and found 

 the wound completely cicatrized. Possessing 

 considerable ingenuity, he next set about making 

 an artificial foot, and soon contrived a wooden 

 leg and foot, armed with a spur, and affixed it 

 to the stump of the amputated limb; upon this 

 the cock actually strutted among* his barn-doojr 

 wives, at Canterbury, a terror to all his feathered 

 rivals. 



In the island of Sumatra, the passion for cockr 

 fighting is so powerful, that the natives make it 

 a serious occupation rather than an amusement. 

 A man is seldom seen travelling in that country 

 without a cock under his arm ; and, perhaps, 

 greater attention is paid by those people to the 

 rearing and breeding of these birds, than we ever 

 did when that diversion was at its height. They 

 arm one of the legs only, not with a slender gaff 

 as is the practice here, but with an instrument in 

 the form of a scymetar, with which the animals 

 make most terrible destruction. The Suraatrians 

 fight their cocks for vast sums: a man has been 

 known to stake his wife, or daughter, and a son 

 his mother, or sisters, on the issue of a battle. 

 Four arbitrators are appointed to decide in all 



