138 
THE POULTRY BOOK. 
instantaneously placed one foot upon it, and with hair erect looked defiantly ; while 
a few deeply-drawn breathings at the window told how anxiously the lookers-on 
speculated as to the event. The Cochins — poor, heavy, domesticated dames — had 
always proved slow in their motions, and their efforts were easily avoided. Not so 
now : a blow the eye could scarcely follow, and a scream most dissimilar to the 
noise from anything feline, gave evidence the contest was not so very unequal as it 
appeared to be. Two or three other blows, in the most rapid succession possible, 
made retreat evidently the only way that remained to the cat of making the best of 
an unlucky speculation ; still, with an obduracy most remarkable, she once more 
seized the chicken with her mouth and sprang with it upon the wall. Nevertheless, 
bravery carried the day, — the hen proved close to her heels, and another double 
rap brought both antagonists headlong back again to the ground. The cat then 
loosed the chicken, bolted to another less exposed outlet, and the hen quickly 
commenced her muster-roll, which embraced the whole of her progeny, and none 
were injured, the hen herself escaping literally without a scratch ; although her 
artificial helps were besmeared with gore, — as was the scene of this extraordinary 
encounter. Some half year afterwards, I heard on inquiry that a longing, lingering 
look was frequently still indulged in by the aggressor, but always from afar, — and 
the promise of the owner of the Game hen has been fulfilled : the cure was a cer- 
tain one. 
No doubt one cause of Game fowls passing through such really trying ordeals 
scatheless and unharmed, is the extraordinary elasticity and invulnerability of 
their plumage as compared with that of other poultry. The more truly the birds 
are bred the more conspicuously by far will this characteristic show itself. I once 
saw a singular experiment tried on a feather plucked from the wing of a highly- 
bred two-year old Game cock, to prove the difference in its repulsiveness, compared 
to a similar feather taken from a grey dorking’s wing, and another from that of a 
Cochin. Tested by length, they were the same ; in circumference they differed 
widely. When measured by the tool used by dealers in iron wire, the Cochin was 
triflingly the thickest of the three ; the dorking feather stood second ; and the 
Game cock’s proved much less than either of the others. They w^ere alternately 
placed in a vice by the quill-end, each being protected from injury by a pair of 
hollow ^ clams,’ fitting round it closely to prevent the quill splitting from the 
unusual pressure, whilst the distance they projected was equal in all cases, causing 
an equality as to leverage ; — the ribbed or under part of the feather was placed 
uppermost, and weights applied to them very gradually. Suffice it to say, the 
resistance in the Game feather, before giving way, w^as equal to something more 
than that of the two others combined ! Its elasticity proved nearly equal to that 
of the same thickness of unannealed iron wire. 
“ Hardy as Game fowls are under natural conditions, none seem more impatient 
of confinement, or less benefit to their owner if deprived of freedom, country air, 
and excercise ; in such cases they speedily become sickly, and lose most of their 
