BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK  , a

game played by two persons with small rackets, called battledores, made of parchment or rows of gut stretched across wooden frames, and shuttlecocks, made of a base of some light material, like cork, with trimmed feathers fixed round the top . The object of the players is to bat the shuttlecock from one to the other as many times as possible without allowing it to fall to the ground . There are Greek drawings extant representing a game almost identical with battledore and shuttlecock, and it has Been popular in China, Japan, India and Siam for at least 2000 years . In Europe it has been'played by children for centuries . A further development is Badminton .