THE POULTRY BOOK. 
141 
they come in contact with one another, with an instinct implanted in them hy a 
higher than human intelligence. 
It is frequently alleged against cock-fighters that they supplant the natural spurs 
by others of steel or silver. It should be remembered, however, that these, being more 
efficacious even than the natural weapons, render the combats only less prolonged. 
To any one who will view the question apart from prejudice, or the maudlin senti- 
mentality that is current at the present time, it must he obvious that a far greater 
amount of cruelty is evidenced in the setting a pacK oi hounds to pursue a fox 
for hours together, till the wretched animal sinks exhausted, and is, whilst still 
living, torn limb from limb — we beg pardon, ‘‘ broken up ” is the delicate ex- 
pression hy which this dismemberment is described. But, say the advocates of 
the chase, that sport is redeemed by the manly courage exercised hy the hare and 
foxhunter ; as though his risking his own neck could lessen one iota the suffering 
of the animal he is pursuing. 
Cocks fight willingly ; the hunted hare, the fox, the deer, the salmon struggling 
for hours on the hook, the vermin pining for days in a steel trap in order that the 
animals he naturally preys upon may he reared for sport, are all the unwilling 
victims of the superior force or intellect of man. Doubtless, however, such views as 
we have expressed will be, with many persons, unpopular at the present day — each 
individual, as Butler writes, compounds for cruelties 
“ He is inclined to, 
By damning those he has no mind to.” 
Beminding one of the lines of Somerville, the author of the poem of The 
. Chase,” who, being an advocate for hunting hares with harriers, writes : — 
“ Nor the timorous hai’e 
O’ermatch’d destroy, but leave that vile offence 
To the mean, murd’rous, coursing crew, intent 
On blood and spoil. 0 blast their hopes, just Heaven ! 
And all their painful drudgeries repay 
With disappointment and severe remorse.” 
The Chase, Book I. 
Let us not be misunderstood, we are not advocating the practice of cock-fighting, 
but merely denouncing the inconsistency of those who indulge in other sports 
attended with a far greater amount of suffering, and who regard themselves as 
severely virtuous because they denounce this one. We never fought a cock, or 
bred one for fighting ; that we have witnessed cock-fights we do not deny, and as 
our readers may like to read a description of a combat, we reproduce the following 
account of one witnessed by ourselves some few years since : — 
“ ^ ^ Young Green burst into the room. ‘ Tegg, 
my boy,’ said he, ‘ come along, here’s the chance you have been waiting for so 
long. Ewart, who has been up at the Poultry Show, says he has never seen a 
cock-fight, so Tait and two or three others, who have got some cocks left over from 
the main they fought on Tuesday, are going to show him what a cock-fight 
really is.’ 
