3-053-412 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches in Spain: a Sunday amusement at Madrid, 1873. '...a duel of pugnacious birds... in Spain...cock-fighting...flourishes and keeps a high rank among fashionable pastimes...a regular theatre is established for the display of gallinaceous valour...the most highly-esteemed combatants with beak and claw, some of which are rated at very high prices, as much as £50 or even £100 being paid for a cock of superior prowess and renown...At the appointed time for a grand cock-fight there is a crowd of eager spectators, very mixed company, who speak loudly of the merits of those birds which they choose to commend, the coloran or red one, the cola corta or short-tailed one, and lay bets on the issue of the fight. Every incident of its progress, every flying leap, dig of the beak, or scratch of the spur, is punctually noted by the sporting reporters, and becomes part of history for the instruction of future generations. So high a degree of enthusiasm prevails that the owner of a valiant cock, which died the death of a hero in the hour of martial victory, was seen to drink the blood pouring from a wound in its mangled head - a grateful tribute of admiring affection'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.