are gentler natured; and, so
far as I have been able to compare the high-bred with the primitive
forms, their range of expression through the voice has been much
increased, a feature which may be noted in other domesticated species of
birds, as, for instance, in the canaries. The most remarkable alteration
which has been brought about in the minds of these creatures consists
in the very great diminution in the combative motive of the males. In
the wild forms, as well as in the kindred variety of the game-cock, this
impulse to battle attains a truly phenomenal development, the like of
which is probably not to be found in any other creature. The male birds
begin their warfare before they are more than half grown, and in their
adult state will attack anything which they can conceive to be an enemy.
They will, with slight provocation, assail any of the other domesticated
species of birds, and even the lesser mammals, such as the dogs and
cats. They will fight their own image in a looking-glass. I have had
game-cocks attack my hand when it was held near the ground and given an
up-and-down movement in imitation of their antagonist's head.

I once reared a game-cock by hand, keeping him secluded from his kind
until he was adult. I then placed him in a large collection of barnyard
fowl where there were half a dozen mongrel cocks, a drake of the muscovy
variety, several ganders, and two turkey-gobblers. Immediately and in
rapid succession he settled his accounts with the males of his own kind.
He shortly overcame the drake and the ganders. He then devoted what was
left of his forces to battles with the turkeys. Here he found himself in
great difficulty, for the reason that these great birds would seize him
by the head and lift his body off the ground. However, he soon learned
an ingenious trick which protected him from this danger. When gathering
breath in the intervals between his assaults, he would hover himself
between his antagonist's legs, keeping step with the awkward creature in
its efforts to get away from him. In a few days he wore out these
doughty foemen and remained the battered master of the field.

Although the indomitable valor of the game-cock may be in some measure
due to the selection which the breeder has applied to the variety, there
can be no question that it is essentially natural to the species and is
the result of an age-long habit which in the native wilds of the
creature did much to insure its safety. T