COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 
288 
long before they are furnished with either comb or 
spurs; if one should crow the challenge is immediately 
accepted. In England,* Spain and Southern Asia, 
however, “ Cock-fighting ” is a national sport, and a cruel 
and barbarous one too, for in this case the spurs are 
either sharpened or shod with a steel point or false spur, 
and the back and belly almost denuded of feathers, so 
that the issue of the battle may be more deadly; and 
indeed the pugnacity of the combatants is such that neither 
will yield but with his last breath. We cannot really say 
whether this blind fury is to be ascribed to the influence 
of jealousy in love affairs, and yet it seems as though it 
must be so, for the poet’s stanza runs thus: 
“ The tilt-yard is the threshing floor : 
On a throne of straw and chaft 
Sits the pretty speckled hen, 
Judging between the combatants. 
Ah, friends, it is her modest cackle, 
Her dainty bashful tripping, 
Her favor too, the guerdon 
Which sets these rivals by the ears.” 
And he is right, though it is singular that domestic 
fowls, which are polygamists, and always have a troop 
of hens at their heels, should be such slaves to jealousy; 
though, by the way, Turks, among men, are just as 
bad ! 
The naval engagements fought on Love’s behalf are no 
less amusing than the above, and those of the domestic 
Duck may be often witnessed. When in the spring time 
two Drakes are chasing a Duck, she flies before them as 
though bashful, and dives, but soon returns swimming 
* I trust Dr. Brehm is aware that this barbarous amusement is illegal in this 
country, and has long since gone out of fashion : with the exception of an occasional 
“main” being fought clandestinely, this pastime has entirely disappeared from 
among us.— W. J. 
