CHAPTER XII. 
THE GAME FOWL. 
G ame are pre-eminently the English fowl ; in no other country hut our own is 
the true-bred Game cock indigenous. 
Cock-fighting has been pursued from time immemorial in many parts of the 
world, and is now a national pastime in the East ; but the birds employed for the 
purpose are what would be termed in this country small varieties of the Malay, 
wanting altogether the exquisite beauty of form and vigorous grace that charac- 
terize the true English breed. In the well-known print of Col. Mordaunt’s 
celebrated Indian cock-fight the birds delineated are most of the Alalay stamp, 
larger, heavier, and much more clumsy in their form, gait, and movement than 
those of English descent. 
There cannot be a doubt that the superiority of the Game fowls bred in England 
has been entirely due to the practice of cock-fighting, which was extensively 
indulged in by all classes of society until the comparatively recent legal enact- 
ments, rendering its practice punishable with heavy pecuniary penalties. 
The practice of cock-fighting may be regarded as one which carries out, under 
man’s supervision, the principle of action which has been so ably described by 
Darwin as “the struggle for life.” Those cocks which have proved the strongest, most 
active, and courageous, and have stricken down their antagonists in the pit, have 
been preserved by man as the progenitors of their kind, this process of “selection” 
has been carried on for a long series of generations, and the ultimate result has 
been that the English ^Game fowl is unequalled in elegance of form, and is uni- 
versally regarded as the highest possible type of gallinaceous beauty. 
In this country so great has been the care taken of their purity of blood, that 
private stud books and tables of descent have been kept, and these carry back the 
unstained origin of many strains for more than a century. 
In describing the characteristics of the Game fowl, there is a generally recognized 
standard for form and figure, which must not be departed from, whatever variety of 
colour the birds may present. Consequently, these characters may be stated once 
for all, leaving merely the variations in plumage to be spoken of under the head 
of each sub-variety. 
In weight. Game fowls vary very considerably. In the days when they were bred 
almost exclusively for the cockpit, 4 lbs. 8 or 10 oz. for the cocks was the size 
aimed at by the breeders ; at the present time this limit is often passed, and some 
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