the English name for the male of gallinaceous birds, but more especially used for the common domestic cock. See Ornithology.

Cock-Pit, a name given to the theatre or area appropriated to the fighting of game-cocks armed with sharp-pointed spurs of steel or silver. Cock-fighting was practised by the ancient Greeks and Romans. The islanders of Delos were especially addicted to this cruel sport; and Tanagra in Boeotia, the isle of Rhodes, Chalcis in Euboea, and the country of Media, were famous for their high-bred 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 excellence of the broods at that time consisted in their weight and largeness. The Greeks, moreover, had some method of preparing the birds for battle by feeding, as may be gathered from Columella.

It seems 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 the youth; but it was afterwards perverted and debased both in Athens and in other parts of Greece into a common pastime.

The Romans, ever prone to imitate the Greeks, followed their example in this mode of diversion, and in the worst Cock-Pit, way; since, when the Romans adopted it, the Greeks had already perverted it to a low and unmeaning sport. It appears that 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, and often attended with the ruin of the parties that engaged in it. His words are—"Nos enim censentur instituere vectigal industrii patriae familiae, non rixosarum avium lanista, coeptis plerumque totum patrimonium pignus alere, victor gallinaceus pyctes absulti;" in which passage he describes the manners, not of the Romans, but of the Greeks, who in his time had converted the division of cock-fighting into a species of gaming, often to the total ruin of their families. It was not till the decline of the empire that the Romans gave in to the custom. The fixed antipathy between the brothers Caracalla and Geta, sons of the Emperor Septimius Severus, commenced, according to Herodian, about the fighting of their cocks; and if this was the first instance of it, it is probable that these princes had learned it in Greece, whither they had often accompanied their father. Quails, however, were the birds chiefly employed for this purpose by the Romans; though cock-fights at a later period were also common.

Cocks and quails pitted for the purpose of engaging one another à l'outrance, or to the last gasp, for diversion, are frequently compared, and with much propriety, to gladiators. Hence Pliny's expression, gallorum, seu gladiatorum; and that of Columella, rixosarum avium lanista; lanista being the proper term for the master of the gladiators. It might naturally have been supposed, that when the bloody scenes of the amphitheatre were discarded, as happened soon after Christianity became the established religion of the empire, the ἐρυθροπανία and the ἐρυθροπανία would also have ceased. The fathers of the church continually inveighed against the spectacles of the arena, upbraiding their adversaries with these, which, indeed, were more unnatural and shocking than a main of cocks; but the latter had a similar tendency towards infusing ferocity into the dispositions of men. This ungenerous diversion too, has been in fact the bane and destruction of thousands in more recent times, as well as of those lanista avium, "cock-feeders," mentioned by Columella, who thus dissipated their patrimonial fortunes.

It is unknown when the practice of cock-fighting was introduced into 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 A Becket, in the reign of Henry II., and describes cocking as a sport of school-boys on Shrove Tuesday. From this time at least it was common. It was disapproved and prohibited by the 39th Edward III.; also in the reign of Henry VIII., though that prince erected the cock-pit in Whitehall. It may here be noticed that the room in Westminster in which her Majesty's privy-council hold their sittings is called the cock-pit, from its being the site of what was formerly the cock-pit belonging to the palace of Whitehall. Cock-fighting was again prohibited under Elizabeth, in 1569. It was a favourite amusement of James I., in whose time there were cock-pits in St James's Park, in Drury Lane, in Tufton Street, in Shoe Lane, and in Jewin Street. Cromwell issued an ordinance to suppress the practice, which bears date March 31, 1654. What were called the battle-royal and the Welsh-main were the two favourite modes of cock-fighting usually exhibited. In the first, an unlimited number of fowls were pitted, and the single surviving bird was deemed the victor, and carried away the prize. The Welsh-main consisted, we shall suppose, of sixteen pairs of cocks; of these, the sixteen conquerors were pitted a second time; the eight conquerors of these were pitted a third time; the four conquerors the fourth time; and, lastly, the two conquerors of these were pitted the fifth time; so that thirty-one cocks were slaughtered for the amusement of spectators. Cock-fighting is now forbidden and punishable by law.

For further information on this subject, the reader may consult the very learned paper of Mr Perce, in the Archaeologia, iii. 182; Beckmann's Hist. of Inventions and Discoveries, vol. ii. Among ancient writers, Columella and Varro have written about the breeding and education of these birds.

Cock-Pit of a ship of war, the apartment of the surgeon and his mates appropriated to the use of the wounded in time of action. It is situated under the lower deck, below the water-line.