COCK, in Zoology, the English name of the males of gallinaceous birds, but more especially used for the common dunghill cock. See Ornithology. Cock-Pit, a sort of theatre upon which game-cocks fight.

It must appear astonishing to every reflecting mind that a mode of diversion so cruel and inhuman as that of cock-fighting should so generally prevail; that not only the ancient Greeks and Romans should have adopted it, but that a practice so savage and heathenish should be continued by Christians of all sorts, and even pursued in these better and more enlightened times.

The ancient Greeks and Romans, as is well known, were wont to call all the nations in the world barbarians; yet certainly, if we consider the many instances of cruelty practised among them, there was very little reason for the distinction. Human sacrifices were common both to them and the barbarians; and the exposing of infants, the combats of men with wild beasts, and of men with men in the gladiatorial scenes, were spectacles of delight and festivity to these self-styled polished nations.

The islanders of Delos, it seems, were great lovers of cock-fighting; and Tanagra, a city in Boeotia, the isle of Rhodes, Chalcis in Euboea, and the country of Media, were famous for their generous and magnanimous race of chickens. There was probably included in the last the kingdom of Persia, whence this kind of poultry was first brought into Greece; and if one may judge of the rest from the fowls of Rhodes and Media, the excellency of the broods at that time consisted in their weight and largeness, the fowls of those countries being heavy and bulky, and of the nature of what our sportsmen call shakebags or turnpokes. The Greeks, moreover, had some method of preparing the birds for battle by feeding, as may be collected from Columella.

It should seem that cock-fighting was at first partly a religious and partly a political institution at Athens, and was continued there for the purpose of improving the seeds of valour in the minds of their youth; but it was afterwards abused and perverted both in Athens and in the other parts of Greece to a common pastime, without any moral, political, or religious intention, just as it is now followed and practised among us.

As the Romans were prone to imitate the Greeks, we may expect to find them following the example of the latter in this mode of diversion, and in the worst way, namely, without any good or laudable motives; since, when the Romans brought it to Rome, the Greeks had forgotten every thing that was commendable in it, and had already perverted it to a low and unmeaning sport. Signior Hyam thinks the Romans borrowed the pastime from Dardanus, in Asia; but there is little reason in making them go so far for it, when it was so generally followed in Greece, whose customs the Romans were accustomed to borrow and imitate. However, it is probable they did not adopt this practice very early; and it may be gathered from Columella that the Romans did not use the sport in his time. This author styles cock-fighting a Grecian diversion ; and speaks of it in terms of ignominy, as an expensive amusement, unbecoming the frugal householder, and often attended with the ruin of the parties that followed it. His words are remarkable: “Nos enim censemus instituere vectigal industrii patris familias, non rixosarum avium lanistae, cujus plerumque totum patrimonium pignus aleae, victor gallinaceus pyctes abstulit;” in which passage he describes the manner, not of the Romans, but of the Greeks, who in his time had converted the diversion of cock-fighting into a species of gaming, even to the total ruin of their families, as happens sometimes in England at this day. The Romans, however, at last gave in to the custom, though not till the decline of the empire. The first cause of contention between the two brothers Bassianus and Geta, sons of the emperor Septimius Severus, happened, according to Herodian, in their youth, about the fighting of their cocks; and if this was the first instance of it, it is probable that these princes had seen and learned it in Greece, whither they had often accompanied the emperor their father.

It is observable that cocks and quails pitted for the purpose of engaging one another à outrance, or to the last gasp, for diversion, are frequently compared, and with much propriety, to gladiators. Hence Pliny’s expression, gallorum, ceu gladiatorum; and that of Columella, rixosarum avium lanistae; lanista being the proper term for the master of the gladiators. Consequently one would expect, that when the bloody scenes of the amphitheatre [7:7:15]were discarded, as happened soon after the Christian religion became the establishment of the empire, the wanton shedding of men’s blood in sport being of too cruel and savage a nature to be patronised and encouraged under such a humane dispensation, one might have expected that the ogrüyoµawa and the αλ5%r^υ<⅛u∙αwα would also have ceased. The fathers of the church are continually inveighing against the spectacles of the arena, and upbraiding their adversaries with these, which, indeed, were more unnatural and shocking than a main of cocks; but the latter had a tendency towards infusing the like ferocity and implacability into the dispositions of men. Besides, this mode of diversion has been in fact the bane and destruction of thousands here, as well as of those lanistae avium, “cock-feeders,” mentioned by Columella, whose patrimonial fortunes were totally dissipated and destroyed by it.

The cock is not only a useful animal, but stately in his figure, and magnificent in his plumage. “Imperitant suo generi,” says Pliny, “et regnum in quacunque sunt domo, exercent.” Aristophanes compares the cock to the king of Persia; most authors also take notice of the “spectatissimum insigne, serratum, quod eorum verticem regiae coronae modo exornat.” His tenderness towards his brood is such, that, contrary to the custom of many other males, he will scratch and provide for them with an assiduity almost equal to that of the hen; and his generosity is so great, that on finding a hoard of meat, he will chuckle the liens together, and, without touching one bit himself, will relinquish the whole of it to them. He was called the bird, ×ar iζo∙χr t v, by many of the ancients; he was highly esteemed in some countries, and .in others was even held sacred, insomuch that one cannot but regret that a creature so useful and noble should, by a strange fatality, be so enormously abused by us. It is true, our αλsκ-guoμαwα, or the massacre of Shrove Tuesday, is now fast declining, and in a few years, it is to be hoped, will be totally disused; but the cock-pit still continues a reproach to the humanity of Englishmen, and to their religion, the purest, the tenderest, and most compassionate of all, not excepting even the Brahminical.

It is unknown when the pitched battle first entered England, but it was probably brought hither by the Romans. This bird existed here before Caesar’s arrival, but no notice of his fighting occurs earlier than the time of William Fitz-Stephen, who wrote the life of Archbishop Becket, in the reign of Henry IL, and describes cocking as a sport of school-boys on Shrove Tuesday. From this time at least the diversion, however absurd, and even impious, was continued amongst us. It was followed, though disapproved and prohibited by the 39 Edward III.; also in the reign of Henry VIII., and afterwards in the year 1569. It has by some been called a royal diversion ; and, as every one knows, the cock-pit at Whitehall was erected by a crowned head,'for the more magnificent celebration of it. There was another pit in Drury Lane, and a third in Javin Street. It was prohibited, however, by one of Oliver’s acts, 31st March 1664. What aggravates the reproach and disgrace are those species of fighting which are called the battle-royal and the Welsh-main, known nowhere in the world but there; neither in China, nor in Persia, nor in Malacca, nor among the savage tribes in America. These are scenes so bloody as almost to be too shocking to relate; and yet, as many may not be acquainted with the nature of them, it may be proper, for exciting aversion and detestation, to describe them in a few words. In the former an unlimited number of fowls are pitted, and when they have slaughtered one another for the diversion of the lookers-on, the single surviving bird is esteemed the victor, and carries away the prize.

The Welsh-main consists, we shall suppose, of sixteen pairs of cocks; of these, the sixteen conquerors are pitted a second time, the eight conquerors of these are pitted a third time; the four conquerors the fourth time, and, lastly, the two conquerors of these are pitted the fifth time; so that thirty-one cocks are sure to be murdered for sport and pleasure.

Cock-Pit of a ship of war, the apartment of the surgeon and his mates, being the place where the wounded men are dressed in time of battle, or otherwise. It is situated under the lower deck.