probably were imported into Britain by the Phoenicians, who
trafficked to each country. Poultry, in a ftate of nature, are
found in great numbers in moil of the jungles in Hindoojlan,
and are exceffively. wi.k|£>they are as fhiall as Bantams. The
females are o f plain>e6l»rsy. and refemble a large partridge.
The cocks are of a moil brilliant red,and refplendent with a rich
glofs o f gold.
P e a c o c k s are ilill found a lmoil univerfaily in the jungles or
thickets o.f Hindoq/lan. The Polygons are very ikilfui in tempting
them by calls, out of the almoit impenetrable bruffiwoods,
into nets and fnarea.
H a m i l t o n faw abundance o f poultry in J a v a ; the cocks,
fays he, have red heads and necks, and bodies, and black wings
and tail; the hens exactly like partridges. Lord. Anfon found
them in great numbers on the Iile of Tinian, fee voyage, p. 309.
M. Sonnerat, ii. 148, gives a figure o f both cock and hen, and a
moil tedious deicription of both fexes, but does not tell us in
what part of India he found thefe birds .
T h e Indians are extravagantly fond of cock-fighting, especially
the inhabitants o f Sumatra, and the other Ma{ayes \ the
account given by Mr. Mar/dm, p. 234, is very entertaining.
They pay even greater attention to the training and feeding
thefe birds than we ever did, even when that diverfion was at its
height. They arm one o f the legs only, not with a ilender gaff
as we do, but with arms in form o f a fcynaeter, which make
moil dreadful deitrudtion. The cocks are never trimmed, but
fought in full feather. The Sumatrans fight their cocks for
yait fums; a man has been known to flake his wife or his
-i~ children,