hed after being set down in the pit, unless to
extricate them from the matting. Whenever a bird refuses to fight longer
he is set breast to breast with his adversary in the middle of the pit,
and if he then still refuses to fight he is regarded as defeated. Among
the favourite breeds may be mentioned the "Irish gilders," "Irish
Grays," "Shawlnecks," "Gordons," "Eslin Red-Quills," "Baltimore
Topknots," "Dominiques," "War-horses" and "Claibornes."

Cock-fighting possesses an extensive literature of its own. See
Gervase Markham, _Pleasures of Princes_ (London, 1614); Blain, _Rural
Sports_ (London, 1853); "Game Cocks and Cock-Fighting," _Outing_, vol.
39; "A Modest Commendation of Cock-Fighting," _Blackwood's Magazine_,
vol. 22; "Cock-Fighting in Schools," _Chambers' Magazine_, vol. 65.

COCK LANE GHOST, a supposed apparition, the vagaries of which attracted
extraordinary public attention in London during 1762. At a house in Cock
Lane, Smithfield, tenanted by one Parsons, knockings and other noises
were said to occur at night varied by the appearance of a luminous
figure, alleged to be the ghost of a Mrs Kent who had died in the house
some two years before. A thorough investigation revealed that Parsons'
daughter, a child of eleven, was the source of the disturbance. The
object of the Parsons family seems to have been to accuse the husband of
the deceased woman of murdering her, with a view to blackmail. Parsons
was prosecuted and condemned to the pillory. Among the crowds who
visited the house was Dr Johnson, who was in consequence made the
object of a scurrilous attack by the poet Charles Churchill in "The
Ghost."

See A. Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_ (1894).

COCKLE, SIR JAMES (1819-1895), English lawyer and mathematician, was
born on the 14th of January 1819. He was the second son of James Cockle,
a surgeon, of Great Oakley, Essex. Educated at Charterhouse and Trinity
College, Cambridge, he entered the Middle Temple in 1838, practising as
a special pleader in 1845 and being called in 1846. Joining the midland
circuit, he acquired a good practice, and on the recommendation of Chief
Justice Sir William Erle he was appointed chief justice of Queensland in
1863. He received the honour of knighthood in 1869, retired from the
bench, and returned to England in 1879.

Cockle is more remembered for his mathematical and scientific
investigations than as a lawyer. Like many young mathematicians he