COCK-FIGHTING. This is a sport of the highest antiquity, and to-day is the great pas time of millions, in the place of its origin, the far Orient, well as a favorite sport in many Western nations, including practically all Latin America. It is noted in the earliest records of China, it was a common pastime of the Persiana long before the Greek invasion, it existed in ancient home, and Fitzstephen vouches for it in England in the twelfth century. Ascham, the tutor of Queen Elizabeth, was charged with being "too much given to dicing and cock-fighting," and is known to have had the intention of writing "a book of the Co•k-pitte.." Cock-pits existed in the metropolis of England (as they did in New York) well into the nineteenth century. Pierce Egan describes the Cock-pit Royal in Fulton Street, Westminster, as a large, lofty, and circu lar building with seats rising as in an amphi theatre. In the middle of it was a round, matted stage of about 18 to 20 feet in diameter, rimmed with an edge 8 or 10 feet high, to keep the cocks from falling over into the audito•inin in their combats. There was a chalk ring in the centre of the matted stage, about a yard iii diameter. and another chalk-mark within it, much smaller, which was intended for the setting to when the birds become too exhausted to make hostile advances toward each other; they were then placed back to back within the inner mark. A large and rude branch candlestick was sus pended low over the mat on the nights of battle. This description will practically suffice for all cock-pits.
The origin of the breed of game-cocks is lost in an obscurity as dim as that of the origin of the sport. The jungle-cock of India may have been its progenitor; he has the constitutional instinct of fighting highly developed. To-day there are various strains—`Warhorses,"Eannie Carters,' Eslin Red Quills,' Arkansas Travelers.' `cordons,' Cotton Bolls,"Transatlanties.' and `Hustlers,' are only a few of those which are favorites in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia.
The 'Warhorse' strain is generally admitted to rank the higheyt, though 'Estill Bed Quills' and 'Gordons' run them close, The 'Warhorses' are the product of a cross between brown and black birds imported from Ireland, and called 'Irish Gilde•s,' and some dark-gray Irish birds. The resulting birds soon after their introduction fought all through the South, defeating the then fashionable 'ShawInecks,' 'Baltimore Topknots,' and *Dominiques."the breed is still maintained it its integrity, and its reputation has spread from the Southern States to Mexico. The cocks are mostly gray, and they are preferred to the red ones; the hens are nearly all jet-black.
The game-cock needs neither education nor experience to teach him to fight, and his capacity for giving and taking punishment till dead has passed into a proverb. The principal quali ties to be desired are (1 ) cutting, i.e. the ability to hit with their heels, about every time they rise, and to rise every time their opponents do; (2) hard hitting—the blows of the heels driven home by the force of the wings applied to them as the cocks, rise; (3) rapidity of fighting. Cocks may be good cutters which are not hard hitters, but disable or kill their an tagonists without apparently heavy blows. Others are what are called wing-fighters, from making a great noise and shuttling with their wings. but scarcely using their legs at all; these are practically worthless.
A good breed is not the only prerequisite to vic tory; the birds must be judiciously strengthened and hardened by a course of diet and physical training to sta nd the great exertion necessa ry. This period used to extend over six weeks, but modern methods have reduced it to ten days, during which time they are restricted to a prescribed diet, and exercised in running and ;parting. Then they are `cut out,' i.e. have their wings trimmed to spread diagonally, the tail cut about one-third of the distance from the end, and the hackle and feathers about the rump shortened.