COCK, properly, the name of the male of the common domestic fowl (see FowL), but very generally extended to the males of other kinds of gallinaceous birds, and not unfre qnently employed as a distinctive appellation of the males even of some kinds of small birds.
The ancients regarded the domestic C. as the companion of Mars, and in heraldry he is the emblem of strife, of haughtiness, of quarrels, and of victory. Guillim has the fol lowing quaint eulogium on the cock: "As sonic account the eagle the queen, and the swallow or wagtail the lady, so may I term this the knight among birds, being both of noble courage, and also prepared evermore to the battle, having his comb for a helmet, his sharp and crooked bill for a falchion to slash and wound his enemy; and as a complete soldier armed cap-0.-pie, lie has his legs armed with spurs, giving example to the valiant soldier to expel danger by fight, and not by flight. The cock croweth when he is vic tor, and giveth a testimony of his conquest. If lie is vanquished. he shunneth the light and society of men l" The C. is said to have been the emblem of the ancient Gauls, who wore it on their helmets for a crest; and though the tradition does not rest on the author ity of any medal or other monument, and is supposed to have been a mere play of words between gallus, a cock, and Gallus, a Gaul, the C. was placed, after the revolution, on
the flags and ensigns of France.
As the emblem of watchfulness, the image of the C. was placed on the summits of church-steeples from a very early period. It is introduced by artists amongst the emblems of our Lord's passion, in allusion .to St. Peter's sin, and for the same reason it is St. Peter's own emblem.
Cock DIVINATION, or ALECTROMANCY, is a method of divining in which a young white cock was made the principal actor. The plan pursued was to describe a circle, and divide it into as many equal parts as there are letters in the alphabet. Upon each of the spaces marked by its respective letter, a grain of corn was placed; and the letters from which the fowl picked the grains, when put together, formed the name of the person about whom inquiry was made.