Cockfighting

an ancient sport, presumably of eastern origin. The natural pugnacity of two male birds is taken advantage of to afford amusement to the spectators. While the term is applied particularly to fighting between two males of the domestic fowl, the natives of the Indies pit the males of the bulbul or eastern nightingale against each other, and the ancients appear to have pitted quails and partridges. The breed of fowls noted for fighting is a spare, tough, pugnacious variety of chickens known as gamefowls and the males as gamecocks. They weigh from four to five pounds. They have strong spurs which are frequently reinforced with steel or silver prongs fastened to the leg with straps. In fighting the cocks are set head to head on a plot of turf, called a pit, and are allowed to fight without interference. A contest between two well matched birds is a cruel and bloody one. They often fight until completely exhausted. More frequently, however, the overpowered bird puts out for a place of safety, while the other, if he has the strength left, celebrates his victory by a flap of the wings and a crow of triumph. Although under the ban and frequently forbidden by law, cockfighting still has its votaries, both in England and America. It is a favorite form of amusement throughout the Spanish-American countries. In the Philippines each village has its cockpit and each villager his gamecock. Their respective ancestry and qualities are a staple article of village talk. A recent writer states that when the thatched hut of a native takes fire, as so combustible an affair is pretty sure to do, wife and children get out the best way they can. His first care is the safety of the coop in which his gamebird is confined. This does not seem so strange when we remember that a horseman's first thought is for his racer when his barn takes fire.

Although not mentioned by Goldsmith in his enumeration of former joys and sports in the Deserted Village, cockfighting was at one time in such high esteem in England that the village schoolmaster had certain duties in connection with the sport for which he was entitled to fees. Opie Reed's The Jucklins gives an interesting picture of a southern gentleman much attached to the practice of cockfighting.

See Bear-Baiting; Bull Fights