Book 8

We have now, Publius Silvinus, dealt in seven books with what practically constituted a complete account of the science of gaining knowledge of the land and all that was required for the business of raising cattle.

Our present book shall bear the next number, eight, for its title, not that the subject of which we are going to speak demands the close and particular attention of the farmer, but because it ought not to be undertaken except in the country and on the farm, and brings benefit to country-folk rather than to town-dwellers. For the keeping of animals at the farm, as of cattle on the pasture, brings no small profit to farmers, since they use the dung of fowls to doctor the leanest vines and every kind of young tree and every kind of soil, and with the fowls themselves they enrich the family kitchen and table by providing rich fare; and, lastly, with the price which they obtain by selling animals they increase the revenue of the farm. Therefore I have thought it fitting that I should speak also of the keeping of this kind of animal. But it is generally carried on either at the farm or in its neighbourhood.

At the farm there are what the Greeks call ὀρνιθῶνες and περιστερεῶνες (poultry-houses and dovecotes), and also, where a supply of water is available, ἰχθυοτροφεῖα (fish-ponds), the management of which requires unremitting care. All these, to use by preference the terms employed in our own language, are enclosures for farm-yard fowls and likewise for birds which are fattened in coops, or else for aquatic animals.

On the other hand, in the neighbourhood of the farm μελισσῶνες and χηνοτροφεῖα (bee-hives and goose-pens) find their place, and there are also carefully managed λαγοτροφεῖα (feeding-places for hares). To these we give a set of similar names, speaking of apiaries, where bees are lodged, aviaries for swimming birds which take their pleasure in pools and fish-ponds, and vivaria for wild creatures which are confined in enclosed woodlands.

First then I will give instructions about the creatures which are fed within the precincts of the farm.

With regards to other animals it may perhaps be doubted whether country people should possess them; but the keeping of hens by farmers is quite a general practice. They fall into three classes, the farm-yard fowl, the " rustic "-hen a and the African fowl. The farm-yard fowl is the bird commonly to be seen on almost every farm.

The " rustic "-cock which is not very different from the farm-yard bird and is caught by the wiles of the fowler, is found in the greatest number in the island in the Ligurian sea to which sailors have given the name Gallinaria,b a lengthened form of the Latin word for hen. The African fowl,c which most people call Numidian, resembles the meleagris,d except that it has on its head a red helmet and crest, both of which are blue on the meleagris. Of these three kinds the female farm-yard fowls alone are properly called hens, its males being called cocks and the half-males capons; they are given this name because they have been castrated to rid them of sexual desire. They do not, however, suffer castration by the loss of their, genital organs but by having their spurs burnt with a red-hot iron; when these have been consumed by the force of the fire, they are smeared with potter's clay until the sores which have been caused heal up.

The profit from keeping the farm-yard type of fowl is not to be despised if a scientific method of rearing them is put into operation, which most of the Greeks and in particular the people of Delos have made famous.

The Greeks, however, since they desired height of body and determined courage in the fray, esteemed most highly the Tanagran a and Rhodian breeds and likewise the Chalcidian b and Median c (called by the ignorant vulgar Melian,d by the change of one letter). We take most pleasure in our own native breed; however, we lack the zeal displayed by the Greeks who prepared the fiercest birds they could find for contests and fighting. Our aim is to establish a source of income for an industrious master of a house, not for a trainer of quarrelsome birds, whose whole patrimony, pledged in a gamble, generally is snatched from him by a victorious fighting e-cock.

He, therefore, who shall be minded to follow our instructions, should consider first with how many and what kind of breeding-hens he ought to provide himself, and then how he ought to look after and feed them; next, at what seasons of the year he ought to reserve the eggs which they produce; then he should arrange for their setting and hatching, and finally take thought for the proper rearing of the chickens. For it is by attention to these points and management that the business of poultry-keeping, which the Greeks call ὀρνιθοτροφία (bird-rearing), is carried out.

Two hundred head are the limit which should be acquired fully to employ the care of one person to feed them, provided, however, that an industrious old woman or a boy be set to watch over the fowls which go astray, so that they may not be carried off by the wiles of men or of animals which lie in wait for them.

Further only the most prolific fowls should be bought. They should have red or darkish plumage and black wings; and, if this is possible, they should be chosen of the latter colour all over and of the nearest colour to it. Failing these colours, white hens should be avoided; for, while they are delicate and not very long-lived, it is also not easy to find white fowls which are prolific: also, being conspicuous owing to their remarkably light colour they are rather often carried off by hawks and eagles. Let your brood-hens, therefore, be of a red colour, square-built, big-breasted, with large heads, straight, red crests, white ears; they should be the largest obtainable which present this appearance and should not have an even number of claws. Those are reckoned the best-bred which have five toes a but without any cross-spurs projecting from their legs; for a hen which has this masculine characteristic is refractory and disdains to admit the male to intercourse and is rarely prolific, and, when she does sit, breaks the eggs with the sharp points of her spurs.

It is advisable not to keep any but the most salacious cock-birds and the same colour as in hens, and the same number of claws is looked for in them, but a loftier stature.

Their crest should be high, blood-red and not crooked, their eyes darkish or tending towards black, their beaks short and hooked, their ears very large and white, their wattles bright-red tending towards white and hanging down like grey beards, their head-feathers of different colours or gold shading into yellow and extending over their throats and necks on to their shoulders. Their chests should be broad and muscular, their wings brawny and like arms, and their tails very prominent and divided into two halves, bending over with a single projecting feather on each side.

They should also have huge thighs, thickly covered with bristling feathers; their legs should be robust but not long, and armed for offence with what may be described as stakes ready for the attack. These male birds, though they are not being trained for fighting and the glory of winning prizes, are, nevertheless, esteemed as well-bred if they are proud, lively, watchful and ready to crow frequently and not easily to be frightened; for on occasion they have to act on the defensive and protect their flock of wives, nay, even to slay a snake which rears its threatening head or some other hurtful animal.

For such male birds as these five hens each are provided. Of the Rhodian and Median breeds the father-birds are not very salacious on account of their heavy build, nor are the mother-birds very prolific: however, three hens are mated with each cock-bird. And when they have laid a few eggs, they are lazy about sitting on them and much more so about hatching them, and they rarely bring up their own offspring.

Those, therefore, whose hearts are set on possessing these breeds on account of their fine appearance, when they have set aside the eggs of the well-bred hens, put them under ordinary hens, in order that the chickens when they are hatched may be brought up by the latter. Tanagran fowls, which are usually equal in size to the Rhodian and Median, do not differ greatly from our native fowls in disposition, and the same is true of the Chalcidian.

But of all these breeds the cross-bred chickens are the best, which our own hens have produced after conceiving them by foreign male birds; for they show the fine appearence of their fathers and their own native salaciousness and productivity. I do not highly commend bantam-hens either for their fecundity or for any other return which they give—unless one takes a pleasure in their low stature—just as indeed I do not commend the bantam-cock either, which is given to fighting and whose lust makes him quarrelsome.

For it generally attacks the other cock-birds and does not allow them to cover the hens, though it cannot itself suffice for a large number of-hens. Its petulance, therefore, must be checked by means of a piece of leather from an old flask, of which, after it has been formed into a round shape, the middle part is cut away and the cock's foot is inserted through this cut-out part, and by this kind of shackle its fierce disposition is restrained. But, as I proposed, I will now give directions for the care of poultry in general.

Hen-houses should be placed in the part of the farm which faces the rising sun in winter and should adjoin the oven or the kitchen, so that the smoke, which is particularly beneficial to this kind of animal, may reach the fowls.

Three adjacent cells are constructed to form the whole building or poultry-house and, as I have said, their continuous front should face the east. In this front there should be one small entrance provided leading into the middle cell, which in itself should be the smallest of the three, being seven feet in height and in its other dimensions.

In this cell entrances should be made in the right and left party walls, one leading to each of the other two cells and adjoining the wall which faces those who enter the central cell. To this wall a hearth should be fixed of such a length as not to block the entrances already mentioned and to allow the smoke from it to penetrate into each of the other two cells. These latter should have a length and height of twelve feet and no more breadth than the middle cell. The height should be divided up by lofts with four unoccupied feet above them and seven below, since they themselves take up one foot.

Both lofts ought to be used to accommodate the hens and should each be lighted by a small window on the east side, which may also provide the birds with a means of exit in the morning into the poultry-yard and a means of entrance in the evening; but care must be taken that they are always kept closed at night that the fowls may remain in greater safety. Below the lofts larger windows should be opened up and secured with lattice-work, that harmful animals may not be able to creep in,but at the same time so constructed that the interior may be well lighted, so that the poultry-keeper, who ought from time to time to keep an eye upon the hens when they are sitting and hatching their young, may more conveniently visit them. For in the hen-houses themselves too the walls should be built so thick as to allow nesting-places for the hens to be cut out of them in a row, where either the eggs may be laid or the chickens hatched; for this is both healthier and neater than what some people do when they forcibly drive pegs into the walls and support wicker-work baskets on them.

But in front of either the walls which have been hollowed, as we have described, or of the wicker-work basket, porches must be placed through which the breeding-hens may reach their nests for the purpose of either laying eggs or sitting on them; for they ought not to fly into the nests themselves, lest, as they leap into them, they break the eggs with their feet.

Next a means of ascent for the hens to the lofts across each of the cells is provided by attaching to the wall moderately sized planks which are roughened a little by having steps made on them, so that the hens may not find them slippery when they fly on to them. Similarly little ladders should be attached on the outside leading from the poultry-yard to the little windows mentioned above, by which the birds may creep in for their nightly repose. But we shall take particular care that these poultry-houses and those about which we shall be speaking presently, are made smooth, within and without, with plaster-work, so that no cat or snake may have access to the fowls and that equally hurtful pests may be kept away.

It is not expedient that the hen should rest on a loft's floor when it is asleep, lest it be harmed by its own dung, because this, if it has adhered to its crooked feet, causes gout. That this calamity may be avoided, perches should be hewn square lest their rounded smoothness should fail to give the bird a good hold when it springs up. After being squared the poles should be fixed in holes in two walls which face one another, so that they may be a foot in height above the loft floor and two feet in breadth away from one another.

Such will be the arrangement of the hen-house in the poultry-yard.

But the poultry-yard itself, through which the hens wander, should be free not so much from dung as from moisture; for it is extremely important that there should be no water in it except in one place, namely, the water for them to drink and that water should be very clean (for water which has dung in it gives fowls the pip), yet you cannot keep it clean unless it is enclosed in vessels made for the purpose. But there are leaden troughs which are filled with either water or food, and it has been found that they are more useful than troughs of wood or pottery. These are closed by having lids placed over them and are pierced with small holes above the middle of their height a palm's breadth apart from one another and large enough to admit the birds' heads. For if they are not provided with covers, any small quantities of water or food that is inside is swept out by the birds' feet. Some people make holes above in the top part of the covers themselves; this should not be done, for the bird leaping on the top befouls the food and water with its excrement.

The best foods to be given to hens are bruised barley and grape-husks, likewise chick-pea and also millet and panic-grass, but these last two only when the low price of cereals permits. When cereals are dearer, small refuse a from wheat is a convenient food to give; for this grain by itself, even in places where it is very cheap, is not a suitable food because it is injurious to fowls. Boiled darnel can also be put before them and likewise bran if only partly separated from the meal; for if there is no meal with the food, it is not suitable nor have they much appetite for it, though they be hungry.

The leaves and seeds of the shrub-trefoil are very highly approved and are greatly appreciated by fowls, and there is no region in which it is not possible to find a very great abundance of this shrub.

Grape-husks, although they tolerate them as food, should not be given to fowls except at times of year when they are not laying; for they cause them to lay seldom and only small eggs. But when they obviously stop laying after the autumn, they can be kept on this food. Whatever food is to be given them when they are loose in the poultry-yard should be distributed in two parts, one when day is beginning and the other when it has already declined towards evening, so that in the morning they may not immediately wander too far away from their sleeping-quarters and that they may return before dusk to the poultry-house in better time in hopes of finding food there, and that the number of head may be verified more often. For winged creatures easily delude the watchfulness of the man who looks after them.

Dry dust and ashes should be placed near the party walls wherever a porch or a roof shelters the poultry-yard, so that the birds may have the means to sprinkle themselves; for it is with these that they clean their feathers and wings; if we believe Heraclitus a the Ephesian who says that pigs wash themselves with mud, farm-yard fowls with dust or ashes.

A hen ought to be let out after the first hour of the day and be shut up again before the eleventh hour. Its manner of life when it is let loose will be as we have described, and it will be no different when it is shut up except that it is not allowed to go out but is kept within the hen-house and fed three times a day with a larger quantity of food; for the daily ration is four cyathi per head, whereas that of the wandering bird is only two cyathi.

A bird which is shut up, however, should have a spacious portico to which it can go out and bask in the sun; and this should be protected with nets, so that no eagle or hawk can fly in. It is only worth while to go to these expenses and to take these precautions in places where the prices of hens and their produce are high. But in the keeping of fowls, as of all domestic animals, the most important thing is that the man who looks after them should be trustworthy, for, unless he is faithful to his master, the profit from the poultry-house will not surpass the cost. Enough has now been said about the management of hens; we will now pursue the other topics in order.

When midwinter is over, this kind of bird is generally wont to lay.

In warmer places the most prolific hens begin laying eggs about the first of January, but in colder regions after the 13th of the same month. But their productivity must be encouraged by suitable food to make them lay earlier. The best food to give them is their fill of half-cooked barley; for it both increases the size of the eggs and makes them lay more often. But this food must be seasoned, as it were, by throwing into it the leaves and seed of shrub-trefoil, which are thought greatly to increase the productivity of birds. The quantity of food, as I have said, should be two cyathi of barley per hen if they are allowed to wander freely, but some shrub-trefoil should be mixed with it, or, if this is not available, vetch or millet.

The keeper will have to take care that the hens, when they are breeding, have their nests strewn with the cleanest possible straw, and he must sweep them out from time to time and put in other litter which is as fresh as possible.

For the nests become full of fleas and other similar creatures which the hen brings with it when it returns to the same nest. The keeper ought also to be continually on the look-out for hens which are laying, a fact to which they bear witness by frequent cackling interrupted by shrill cries. He will have to watch until they produce eggs and then immediately go round the nests so that the eggs which have been laid may be collected and a record taken to show the number which have been laid each day and that the freshest possible eggs may be put under the clucking hens, for this is what country-folk call those birds which wish to sit.

The rest should either be stored or else turned into money. Furthermore, the freshest eggs are most suitable for hatching; those, however, which have been kept for some time can also be set, provided that they are not more than ten days old. Hens which have completed their first clutch of eggs generally want to sit from January the 13th onwards; but they must not all be allowed to do so, since young pullets are more useful for laying eggs than for hatching them, and their desire to sit is checked by passing a small feather through their nostrils.

Veteran fowls, therefore, will have to be chosen for the task of sitting, which have already done so frequently, and their disposition must be fully known since some hens are better at hatching the chickens and others are more suitable for bringing them up when they have been hatched. Some hens, on the other hand, break and consume both their own and other hens' eggs; any hen which does this will have to be got rid of immediately.

The chickens of two or three hens, when they have been hatched and are still very young, should be transferred to one mother, whichever is the best nurse; but this must always be done the very first day while the mother, owing to their similarity, is unable to distinguish her own young and those of other hens.

A limit, however, must be observed, which ought not to be more than thirty head; for it is said that a larger flock than this cannot be cared for by a single hen.

The rule is observed of putting an uneven number of eggs under a hen, but it is not always the same number.At the first setting, that is, in the month of. January, fifteen eggs, and never more, ought to be set, in March nineteen and never less: in April, twenty-one, and the same number throughout the summer until October 1st. a After this date any attention given to the matter of hatching is useless, because, owing to the cold, the chickens generally die as soon as they are hatched. Most people, however, do not think that it is good to hatch chickens after the summer solstice, because from that time onwards, even though it is easy to rear them, they never come to their proper growth; but in the neighbourhood of towns, where chickens are sold at a high price straight from their mother's care, summer rearing is to be approved.

When eggs are being put under a hen, care should always be taken that this is done when the moon is increasing, namely, from the tenth to the fifteenth day of the month; for the actual placing of the eggs is most convenient somewhere about this time, and it is necessary to arrange that the moon is increasing again when the chickens are hatched.It takes twenty-one days for the eggs to become quickened and take on the form of birds in the case of farm-yard poultry, but for peacocks and geese rather more than twenty-seven days are required.

If ever it should be necessary to put the eggs of the two latter species under ordinary hens, we shall allow them to sit first for ten days on the eggs of these alien birds, and then they will be given four eggs of their own kind to sit upon, and never more than five. These must be as large as possible; for from undersized eggs only very small birds are produced. Next, when anyone wishes as many male chickens as possible to be hatched, he will set the longest and most pointed eggs; if, on the other hand, he wants female chickens, he should set the roundest eggs. The following is the usual method of placing eggs as handed down by those who are most scrupulous in the way they manage such matters. First of all they choose the most retired nesting-boxes, so that the brooding hens may not be disturbed by other fowls; then, before they strew anything in them, they cleanse them carefully and purify the chaff which they are going to put under the hens with sulphur and bitumen and a burning torch, and when they have thus purged it they throw it into the nest-boxes, making the nest hollow so that the eggs may not roll out and fall when the hens fly in or leap down.

Very many people also lay a little grass under the litter in the nest-boxes and small branches of bay and also fasten underneath heads of garlic with iron nails, all of which things are regarded as preservatives against thunder by which the eggs are spoilt and the half-formed chickens killed before they can reach complete perfection in all their parts.

The man who places the eggs is careful not to place them one by one in the nest-box by hand, but should collect the complete number in a wooden basin and gently pour the whole clutch into the nest ready prepared.

Food must be placed near the hens when they are sitting, so that, being well satisfied, they may be more eager to remain on their nests and may not wander too far away and let the eggs grow cold.

Though the hens themselves turn the eggs with their feet, the keeper of the poultry, when the hens have leaped down, should go round and turn the eggs by hand, so that they may easily be quickened, receiving heat equally all over, and also that he may remove any eggs which have been damaged or broken by the hen's claws. After doing this for eighteen days, on the nineteenth he should look and see whether the chickens have broken through the eggs with their little beaks and listen whether they are peeping; for often, because of the thickness of the shells, they cannot break their way out. He will, therefore, have to remove with his hand the chickens which are stuck in the shell and put them under their mother to be kept warm, and he should do this for not more than three days, for after the twenty-first day the eggs which are silent have no living creature in them and must be removed, so that the hen may not be kept sitting any longer after the hatching is over, deluded by vain hope.

Chickens should not be removed one by one as they are hatched but should be allowed to remain in the nest for one day with their mother and should be kept without water or food until they are all hatched. On the next day, when the brood is complete, it should be brought down from the nest in the following manner.

The chickens should be placed in a sieve made of vetch or darnel, which has already been in use, and they should then be fumigated with sprigs of penny royal a; this seems to prevent the pip, which very quickly kills them when they are young. After this they must be shut up in a coop with their mother and given a moderately large feeding of boiled barley-flour with water or flour of two-grained wheat sprinkled with wine.

For above all things indigestion must be avoided, and so on the third day they should be kept in the coop with their mother and before they are let out for fresh food, they should each be examined separately to see if they still have any of the previous day's food in their gorge; for if the crop is not empty, this is a sign of indigestion and they ought to be kept away from food until digestion has taken place. While they are very young, chickens should not be allowed to wander too far but should be kept in the neighbourhood of the coop and fed on barley-meal until they are strong, and care must be taken that they are not breathed upon by snakes, whose odour is so pestilential that it kills them all off. This is prevented by frequently burning hart's-horn or galbanum b or women's hair; by the fumes from all these things the aforesaid pest is generally kept away.

Care will also have to be taken that they are kept moderately warm; for they do not bear extreme heat or cold.

It is best that they should be kept shut up in the hen-house with their mother and be given full liberty to wander abroad only after forty days. But in the first days of what may be called their infancy they should be held in the hands and the little feathers under their tails should be plucked from their buttocks, lest they become befouled with dung and grow hard and so block the natural passages. It often happens, however, in spite of the precautions taken, that the bowels have no exit; a perforation is, therefore, made and a passage thus opened for the digested food.

Often too when the chickens have already grown stronger they will have to avoid the fatal disease of the pip, as also will their mothers.To prevent it, we shall give them the purest possible water in the cleanest possible vessels, and we shall also frequently fumigate the hen-houses and keep them cleansed from dung. Some people, if the pestilence persists, moisten morsels of garlic with warm oil and insert them in their throats.

Others wet their mouths with warm human urine and keep them closed until the bitter taste of the urine forces them to expel through their nostrils the nauseous matter produced by the pip. The berry also, which the Greeks call the wild grape, is beneficial mixed with their food, or else pounded up and given them in water to drink. These remedies are given only to those who are suffering just to a slight degree; if the pip surrounds the eyes and the fowl now rejects its food, its cheeks are cut with a lancet and all the diseased matter collected under the eyes is pressed out, and then a little pounded salt is rubbed into the wounds.

Further, this disease chiefly arises when the fowls are suffering from the cold and from poor feeding, and also when, during the summer, water standing in the poultry-yard is drunk, and, again, when they are allowed to eat figs and unripe grapes and not to take their fill of them, foods from which fowls should certainly be kept away.

A method of making them loathe them is to pick the wild grapes from the bushes while they are still unripe and put them before them when they are hungry cooked with fine wheat-meal, for being disgusted by the taste the birds refuse every kind of grape. A similar method can be employed also with the wild-fig, which being cooked with their food and given to the birds, creates a distaste for figs also. A practice too, which is employed for all other livestock, of choosing the better and selling the worse should be observed also in the case of poultry, in order that annually during the autumn, when they cease to be productive, their number may be diminished.

We shall get rid of the old hens, that is, those which are more than three years old, also those which are not very prolific or are not very good nurses, and, above all, those which eat their own and other hens' eggs, likewise also those which are beginning to crow like cocks or even to strut about, and also late-born chickens, which have been hatched from the solstice onwards and could not reach their full growth. The same system will not be observed for the cock-birds, but we shall keep those which are well-bred as long as they can impregnate the hens; for good quality in a mating male is rather rare among these birds. Also at the time when the hens cease to lay, that is, from the 13th of November, the more expensive food must be withheld and grape-husks be supplied, which form quite a suitable diet, if refuse from wheat is added from time to time.

The keeping of eggs over a longer period is also germane to the subject which we are now considering. In winter they are conveniently preserved if you bury them in chaff, in summer if you put them in bran.

Some people cover them first for six hours with pounded salt; next they wash them and then bury them in chaff or bran. Some people cover them with a heap of whole beans, many with a heap of bruised beans; others bury them in unpounded salt: others harden them in lukewarm brine. But salt in any form, although it does not allow the eggs to rot, shrinks them and prevents them from remaining full: and this is a deterrent to the purchaser. Thus even those who plunge the eggs in brine do not completely preserve their original condition.

Although it is the business of the poulterer rather than of the farmer to fatten hens, yet, since it is not a difficult task, I thought that I ought to give directions on the subject.

A spot is required for this purpose which is very warm and has very little light, where the birds may be hung, shut up each separately in rather narrow coops or plaited cages and confined in so close a space that they cannot turn round. They should, however, have holes on either side, one through which they can put out their head and the other through which they can put out their tail and hind-quarters, so that they may be able both to take their food and also get rid of it when it has been digested and so may not be befouled with dung.

Very clean chaff should be spread under them or soft hay, that is, hay of the second crop; for if their bed is hard they do not easily fatten. All the feathers should be cleared away from their heads and under their wings and hind-quarters, from the head and wings so that they may not breed lice, and from their hind-quarters so that sores may not be caused by dung in the private parts.

Barley-meal is given as food, which, sprinkled with water and kneaded, is formed into pellets with which the birds are crammed.

They should, however, be given somewhat sparingly for the first few days, until they become accustomed to digest more of this food; for indigestion must above all things be avoided and only as much given them as they can assimilate; nor ought fresh food be put before them until it is apparent, from feeling the crop, that none of the old food has remained behind. Then, when the bird has had its fill, the coop is lowered a little and the bird is let out, not in order that it may wander at will but rather that it may pursue with its beak anything that stings or bites it.

The latter is the common precaution taken by fatteners of birds: but those who wish to make the birds not only plump but also tender, sprinkle meal of the kind already mentioned with fresh honey-water and then cram them with it. Some people mix one part of good wine with three parts of water and fatten the bird with wheaten-bread soaked in it. If the process of cramming is begun at the new moon (for this date too should be observed), the fowl is quite fat by the twentieth day: but, if it takes a dislike to its food, you will have to lessen the amount for the same number of days as the cramming has already proceeded, but only provided that the whole period of fattening does not go beyond the twenty-fifth day of the lunar period. It is very important that all the biggest fowls should be reserved for the more sumptuous feasts; for thus a worthy recompense attends one's trouble and expense.

The same method is successfully employed to make wood-pigeons and house-pigeons that live in dovecots very plump; there is, however, not so much profit in cramming pigeons as in just rearing them; for mere possession of them is not unworthy of the attention of a good farmer.

The feeding of this kind of bird too requires less supervision in distant parts of the country where they can be allowed free egress, for they frequent the haunts assigned to them on the tops of towers or on very lofty buildings with ever-open windows through which they fly forth to seek their food. Nevertheless for two or three months in the year they welcome food from the store-house, while during the other months they feed themselves on seeds picked up in the fields.

But in regions near a city they cannot do this because they are caught by the various snares of the bird-catchers. They ought, then, to be shut up and fed under cover; and on the farm they should not be kept in a part of the farm-house which is level with the ground or cold, but a loft should be constructed for them in an elevated position to face the midday sun in winter;a and, that we may not repeat the instructions already given, the walls, as we described in speaking of the hen-house, should be hollowed to form a row of sleeping-places: or, if this is not convenient, pegs should be driven into the walls and boards placed upon them to hold lockers, in which the hens may nest, or earthenware dovecots with porches in front of them through which they may reach their sleeping-quarters.

The whole place and the pigeon-cells themselves ought to be finished off with white plaster, since birds of this kind take a special pleasure in that colour; also the walls ought to be made smooth outside, particularly round the window, which should be so placed as to admit the sun for the greater part of a winter's day and should have adjoining it a fairly large pen, protected by nets to keep out hawks, which may accommodate the doves when they come out to bask in the sun;

through this also the mother-birds, which are sitting on their eggs or their squabs, can be let out into the fields, so that they may not become prematurely aged through the depression caused by the grievous servitude of perpetual imprisonment; for when they have fluttered about a little round the farm-buildings, they are exhilarated and refreshed and return invigorated to their young, for whose sake they make no attempt to wander far afield or escape by flight.

The vessels in which water is provided should be like those used for fowls, so constructed as to admit the necks of those which drink from them and too narrow to allow the entrance of those which wish to wash in them; for to do so is not good either for the eggs or the young, sitting on which they spend most of their time.It will be found a good plan that their food should be scattered near the wall, since generally those parts of the dove-house are free from dung. Vetch or bitter-vetch and next in order lentils and millet and darnel are considered to be the most suitable foods, likewise the refuse from wheat, also any other kinds of pulse on which hens too are fed. The place ought to be swept and cleaned out from time to time; for the better it is looked after, the more cheerful is the appearance of the bird, and so squeamish is it that it often takes a dislike to its own home and abandons it if it is given the opportunity to fly away.

This is wont to happen often in districts where the birds are allowed free egress. For the prevention of such an escape, there is an ancient precept of Democritus. There is a kind of hawk which the country-folk call a tinnunculus (kestrel) and which generally makes its nest in buildings. The young of this bird are enclosed separately in earthenware pots, and while they are still breathing, lids are put over the pots which are smeared with plaster and hung up in the corners of the pigeon-houses. This induces in the birds such a love for the place that they never desert it.

For the rearing of the young chicks female birds must be chosen which are neither old nor too young, but they should be very large, and care must be 1 taken that, if possible, the chicks should never be separated but be kept together as they were hatched; for if this principle is observed in mating them, they generally rear larger broods.If this is not done, at any rate birds of different breeds, for example the Alexandrine and the Campanian, should not be mated; for they feel less affection for hen-birds unlike themselves and so have little intercourse with them and do not often produce offspring.

The same colour of plumage is not approved always or by everybody; it is, therefore, not easy to say which is the best. White, which is generally to be seen everywhere, is not.very highly commended by some people; it should not, however, be avoided for birds which are kept in confinement, but for those' which wander freely it is much to be con- demned, because it is very easily espied by a hawk.

Fecundity in pigeons, though it is much less than in hens, yet brings in greater profit; for a pigeon, if it is a good breeder, rears eight broods in the year, and so pigeons fill the coffers of their owners with the prices which their young command, as that excellent writer Marcus Varro a assures us, who has recorded that, even in those more austere times, a single pair used to be sold for 1,000 sesterces.It makes us blush for the present generation, if we are willing to believe that people can be found to pay 4,000 nummi for a pair of birds, though I should regard those people who pay great sums in copper and silver for the pleasure which their pets give them merely because they own and possess them, as less insufferable than those who clear of all their birds the river Phasis b in Pontus and the pools of Lake Maeotis c in Scythia; nay, they are now in their drunkenness belching forth birds brought from the Ganges and from Egypt.

Nevertheless, the fattening process can also be carried out in this pigeon-house, as has already been said; for if any barren or badly-coloured pigeons occur, they are crammed in the same manner as hens.

Young pigeons indeed are more easily fattened under their mothers' care, if when they are already strong but before they begin to fly, you pull out a few of their wing-feathers and crush their legs, that they may remain quiet in one spot, and give plenty of food to the parent-birds with which they may feed themselves and their young more abundantly. Some people bind their legs loosely together, because they think that if they are broken, pain, and consequently emaciation, is caused; but doing so does not contribute at all to their fattening, for, while they are trying to get rid of their bonds, they are never at rest, and by this kind of exercise, as it were, they add nothing to their bulk. Broken legs cause pain for not more than two or at most three days and deprive them of all hope of wandering abroad.

The rearing of turtle-doves is of no benefit, because this kind of bird neither lays eggs nor hatches its young in an aviary.

A flight of them is ready for cramming in the condition in which it is caught, and can on this account be crammed with less trouble than any other bird, not, however, at every time of year. For in the winter, in spite of all the trouble spent upon them, it is difficult to make them grow, and yet the price of turtle-doves is lessened owing to the greater abundance of thrushes. During the summer, on the other hand, the turtle-dove grows fat even of its own accord, provided it has easy means of getting food. Indeed it is only a question of putting food in its way, especially millet, not that it grows less fat on wheat or other cereals but because it takes the greatest pleasure in millet-seed. In winter, however, pellets of bread soaked in wine fatten turtle-doves as well as wood-pigeons more quickly than any other food.

People do not construct either pigeon-boxes or hollow cells as receptacles for turtle-doves as for wood-pigeons, but brackets are fixed in a row along a wall and hold small hempen mats with nets spread in front of them, so that the birds are prevented from flying about, because, if they do so, they lose bulk.

Here they are constantly fed with millet or wheat; but the grain must not be given them unless it is dry. Half a modius of food every day easily satisfies a hundred and twenty turtle-doves. The purest possible water is always provided in vessels such as are used for pigeons and hens. The mats are kept clean so that the dung does not burn their feet, and the dung should itself be carefully set aside for the cultivation of the fields and trees, as also that of all birds except those which swim. This bird is not so suitable for cramming when it is old as when it is young, and so the choice is made about harvest-time when the young brood has already gained strength.

Still more labour and expense is spent on thrushes, which are kept in every country district, but, with greater advantage to their health, in that in which they have been caught; for there are difficulties about moving them elsewhere, because, when they are shut up in cages, most of them become despondent; indeed they do so when they are instantaneously hurled from the net into the aviaries.

So, to prevent this, some old thrushes ought to be mixed with them which, having been brought up by the fowlers for this purpose, may serve as decoys for the captives and may mitigate their distress by flying in among them. For in this way wild birds will become used to seeking both their water and their food when they have seen the tame birds doing so. They require a place as well protected and as sunny as wood-pigeons need, but transverse poles are fixed in it fitted into holes pierced in the walls which face one another, on which they may perch when they have had their fill of food and wish to rest.

These poles ought not to be raised higher from the ground than a man's height allows, so that they may be within his reach when he is standing up.The food is usually placed in those parts of the aviary which have no perches above them, so that it may remain more clean.

Dried figs, carefully crushed and mixed with fine flour, ought always to be provided, so abundantly indeed that some is left over. Some people chew a fig and then offer it to the thrushes; but it is scarcely expedient to do this where the number of thrushes is large, because people to chew the figs cost a good deal to hire and themselves eat an appreciable quantity because of the pleasant taste.

Many people think that a variety of food ought to be provided, lest the thrushes take a dislike to a single food. This variety consists in putting before them seeds of myrtle and mastic, also wild olive and ivy berries and likewise the fruit of the strawberry-tree, for these are the things for which this kind of bird generally seeks in the fields, and so they do away with the distaste for food which they feel in their idle captivity in the aviaries and make the bird population there more voracious, which is a great advantage; for the more they eat the quicker they get fat.

Little troughs, however, full of millet are always placed near them since it is the most solid part of their diet; for the foods which we have mentioned above are given them as relishes. Vessels for the supply of fresh, clean water should be not unlike those for poultry.

Thanks to the expenditure in this way of money and care, so Marcus Terentius informs us,a these birds were often bought for three denarii a piece in our grandfathers' time, when those who celebrated triumphs gave a feast to the people. But at the present day luxury has made this their everyday price; wherefore this source of income must not be despised even by farmers.

We have now dealt in general with those kinds of birds which are fed within the precincts of the farm; we must now speak of those which are also given freedom to seek their food in the fields.

The rearing of peafowl calls for the attention of the city-dwelling householder rather than of the surly countryman; yet it is not alien to the business of the farmer who aims at the acquisition, from every source, of pleasure with which he beguiles the loneliness of country life; and the elegance of these birds delights even strangers, much more their owners.

This breed of birds, therefore, can be easily kept on the small wooded islands which lie off the coast of Italy; for since they cannot fly high or over long distances and since too on these islands there is no fear of their being carried off by a thief or by harmful animals, they can safely wander about without anyone to look after them and acquire most of their food for themselves. The hen-birds, finding themselves as it were released from bondage, of their own accord bring up their young with unusual devotion, and the man in charge of them should have nothing to do except, at a fixed time of day, to give the signal and summon the flock to the neighbourhood of the farm and throw down a small quantity of barley before them as they run to meet him, so that the birds may not be hungry and that the number may be verified of those who come to his call.

But the possession of these birds is a rare circumstance and so an unusual amount of care must be exercised in inland districts, and the following procedure must be followed.

A flat piece of land covered with grass and trees is enclosed with a high fence to three sides of which galleries are attached, while on the fourth side there are two huts, one for the dwelling-place of the custodian, the other as a peacock-house. Then in the galleries enclosures are made with reeds in a row to form coops such as are placed on the roofs of a pigeon-house. These enclosures are separated from one another by barriers as it were of reeds which run between them, so arranged as to have one entrance on either side. The peacock-house ought to be entirely free from damp, and in the floor short stakes are fixed in a row, the tops of which have carefully hewn tenons for insertion into holes made in the transverse perches. Moreover, these perches which are placed on the top of the stakes are cut square, so that they may give a foothold to a bird when it leaps onto them, but they are made so as to be removable in order that, when it is necessary, they may be detached from the stakes and give free access to those who are sweeping out the peacock-house.

This kind of fowl, when it has completed its first three years, breeds excellently, but at a tenderer age it is either sterile or not very prolific. The male bird has the salaciousness of the farmyard cock and so requires five hens; for if it frequently covers one or two of them that have been laying, it spoils eggs which are hardly yet formed in the womb and does not allow them to be brought to birth, since they fall out of the genital parts while they are still immature.

In the last part of the winter the desires of both sexes must be kindled by foods which excite lust.

The best means to this end is to toast some beans over embers which are not very hot and give them while still warm to the fowls every fifth day on an empty stomach; but you should not go beyond six cyathi to each bird. This food must not be scattered promiscuously to all of them together but must be placed in each of the enclosures, which I had suggested should be made of reeds woven together, a portion having been set aside for five hens and a cock and likewise water which should be suitable for drinking. When this has been done the male birds are driven, without quarrelling, each into its own enclosure together with their hens, and the food is equally distributed over the whole flock.

For even among birds of this kind pugnacious males are found which try to deprive those which are weaker than themselves of food and sexual intercourse, if they are not kept apart in this way. Generally in sunny places, when the west winds begin to blow, that is, from the 13th of February until the month of March, a desire for sexual intercourse torments the male birds. It is a sign that a peacock's lust is excited when it covers itself with its bejewelled tail-feathers and seems to be admiring itself; when it does so, it is said to be forming a wheel.

After the mating season the laying hens must immediately be watched carefully lest they lay their eggs anywhere except in the peacock-house, and the parts of the females must often be felt with the fingers, for, when the time for laying is at hand, they carry their eggs in readiness.When they begin to lay they must be shut up, so that they may not produce their eggs outside the enclosure.

Above all during the seasons in which they lay, the peacock-house must be piled high with more straw, the better to ensure that the eggs are delivered intact. For usually peahens, having come to seek rest at night, lay their eggs while they are roosting on the perches, which have already been described, and when the eggs have fallen from a lesser height and more softly, they keep their soundness unimpaired. Every day, therefore, during the period of laying you will have to go carefully round the peacock-houses in the early morning and collect the eggs which are lying about, and the fresher they are when they are set under the hen, the better are the prospects of a good hatch, and that this should be done is very much to the householder's advantage. For peahens which do not sit generally produce three lots of eggs during the year, but those which sit spend the whole period of their productivity in either hatching or even rearing their young.

The first laying generally consists of five eggs, the second of four, and the third of either three or two. There, is no reason for making the mistake of letting Rhodian hens incubate peahens' eggs, since they do not even bring up their own offspring properly; but the biggest veteran farmyard-fowls of our native breed should be chosen and should be put to sit upon nine eggs, five of which should be peahen's and the rest ordinary hen's eggs, nine days after the moon's first increase.

Then on the tenth day all the hen's eggs should be removed and the same number of fresh eggs of the same kind substituted, that they may be hatched out with the peahen's eggs on the thirtieth day which is about new moon. But it must not escape the keeper's attention to mark the mother-hen when she leaps down and to visit the nest-box frequently and with his hand to turn the peahen's eggs, which on account of their size are more difficult for the farmyard-hen to move; and so that he may carry out this task with greater care, one side of the eggs should be marked with ink and the poultry-man will then have a means of knowing whether the eggs have been turned by the hen.

But, as I have said, we must remember that farmyard hens of the greatest possible size are provided for this purpose; and if they are of only moderate build, they ought not to sit upon more than three peahen's eggs and six of their own kind.

When the hen has hatched the chickens, the farmyard chickens will have to be transferred to another nurse, and any young peafowls which are hatched from time to time should be collected round one nurse until a flock of twenty-five head is made up. But when the young peafowls are hatched out, on the first day, like farmyard chickens, they should not be moved, but on the following day they should be transferred to a coop with the hen that is to bring them up, and during the first days they should be fed on barley-meal sprinkled with wine and with gruel made from any kind of cereal and allowed to grow cold.

Then after a few days a Tarentine leek cut up small should be added to their diet and soft cheese which has been pressed out with great force, for whey is obviously harmful to chickens. Locusts too, whose feet have been removed, are regarded as useful for feeding the peachicks and they ought to eat them until the sixth month; afterwards it is enough to give them barley from the hand. After the thirty-fifth day following their birth they may even be quite safely taken out into a field, and the flock follows the clucking hen as though it were their mother.

The latter is shut up in a coop and taken out to the field by the man who feeds them, and when it is let out it is secured by a long line attached to its foot. The chicks flutter round it and, when they have eaten their fili, they are brought back to the farm, following the clucking of their foster-mother, as I have already described. The authorities are pretty well agreed that the other hens which are bringing up chickens of their own kind ought not to be fed in the same place; for when they have seen the little peachicks, they cease to care for their own chickens and abandon them before they reach maturity, evidently hating them because they do not equal the little peachicks either in size or in beauty.

The same diseases as usually harm farmyard fowls attack these birds also, and no remedies are applied to them other than those which are administered to ordinary cocks and hens; for the pip and indigestion and any other plagues which occur are checked by the same remedies as we have prescribed.When they have passed the seventh month, they should be shut up with the others in the peacock-house for their night's rest; but care will have to be taken that they do not remain on the ground. Those who go to sleep in this position must be picked up and placed on the perches, so that they may not suffer from the cold.

The rearing of guinea-fowls is almost the same as that of peacocks. But woodland hens, which are called " rustic "-fowls, do not breed in captivity, and, therefore, we have no instructions to give about them except that they must be given their fill of food, so that they may be better suited for feasts to which guests are invited.

I now come to those birds which the Greeks call amphibious, because they require not only food produced from the earth but also that which comes from the water, and have accustomed themselves quite as much to standing water as to the land.

Of this type of bird the goose is particularly acceptable to farmers, because it does not demand very much attention and keeps watch more cleverly than a dog, since by its cackling it betrays the presence of anyone who is lying in wait, just as (so history has informed us) when during the siege of the Capitol it was the goose which loudly announced the approach of the Gauls while the dogs kept silence.

The goose, however, cannot be kept everywhere, an opinion which Celsus expresses with much truth when he says: A goose cannot easily be maintained without plenty of water and plenty of grass and is not profitable in closely planted land because it plucks at anything which it can reach; but wherever there is a river or a lake and an abundance of grass and there are not sown crops too near at hand, this kind of bird also should be reared. We, furthermore, are in favour of keeping geese not because it brings a large profit but because it gives very little trouble. Yet it produces goslings and feathers; the latter you may gather not merely once a year, like wool from sheep, but you can pluck twice, in spring and in autumn. Indeed for these reasons, if local conditions permit, you should rear at any rate a few geese and assign three female birds to one male; for because of their weight they cannot couple with more. Moreover, so that they may have protection, separate goose pens should be made for each inside the poultry-yard a in which they can rest and where they can lay their eggs.

Those who desire to possess flocks of swimming birds establish goose-pens, which then will flourish only if they are arranged in the following manner.

A yard remote from any other livestock is enclosed by a wall nine feet high and surrounded by porticos so arranged that the keeper's hut may be in some part of them. Then under the porticos square pens are built of unhewn stones or even small bricks. It is enough if each pen measures three feet each way and has a single entrance fitted with strong little doors, because the pens ought to be kept shut when the geese are laying or sitting. If there is a pool or river outside the farm and not far from the building, no other water need be looked for; otherwise a lake and fish-pond should be artificially constructed, so that the geese may have water into which to dive; for they can no more live properly without the element of water than they can without the element of earth. A marshy field too which is also grassy should be set aside for them, and other foods be sown such as vetch, trefoil, fenugreek and above all the kind of endive which the Greek call seris. b Lettuce seeds in particular should also be sown for this purpose, since it is a very tender vegetable and is also much sought after by these birds; also it is a very useful food for goslings.

Having made all these preparations, you must take care that the male and female birds which you choose are of the largest possible size and of a white colour;

for there is another kind which is of various colours and, originally wild, has been tamed and become a domestic bird, but it is not so prolific and commands a lower price, and so should certainly not be reared.

The most suitable time for coupling geese is from the height of winter onwards, and then for laying eggs and sitting on them from the first of February or March until the summer solstice, which falls in the last part of the month of June.They couple not standing on the ground, like the birds of whom we dealt before, but generally in a river or pond; and each hen-bird lays a clutch of eggs three times a year if prevented from hatching them out, which is a better plan than if they sit on their own eggs; for the young are better reared by ordinary hens and also the result is a much larger flock.

At each laying they produce the following numbers of eggs, at the first five, at the next four and at the last three. Some people allow the geese themselves to rear the last clutch, because for the rest of the year they will be taking a holiday from laying. The female birds must not on any account be allowed to lay outside the enclosure, but, when they seem to be looking for a nesting-place, they must be stopped and must be examined; for if they are near laying, the eggs, which are in the nearest part of the genital organs, can be felt with the finger. Wherefore they ought to be taken to the goose-pen and shut up there so that they may lay their eggs; and it is enough to have 'done this once with each of them since every one of them returns to the place where it first laid an egg. But, after the last laying, when we wish the geese themselves to sit, the eggs of each will have to be marked so that they may be put under those which laid them; for it is said that a goose does not hatch another's eggs unless she has some of her own also beneath her.

Goose eggs, like those of peahens, are put under ordinary hens, the maximum numbers being five and the minimum three, whereas a minimum of seven and a maximum of fifteen are put under the geese themselves. But care must be taken, when stalks of nettle (which are used as a remedy to cure disease) are placed under the eggs, that they may not possibly hurt the goslings when they are hatched; for nettles kill them if they sting them when they are quite young.

Thirty days are required for the forming and hatching of the goslings when the weather is cold; for when it is warm, twenty-five days are enough, but more often the gosling is hatched on the thirtieth day. While it is quite small, for the first ten days it is shut up with its mother in the pen and fed there; afterwards, when calm weather allows, it is taken out into the meadows and to the ponds.

Care must be taken that it is not stung by the prickles of the nettle or sent out hungry to pasture, but that it has had its fill beforehand of chopped endive or lettuce leaves; for if it is still not very strong and arrives hungry at the pasture-ground, it struggles so persistently with shrubs or the tougher plants that it breaks its neck. It is also well to provide it with millet or even wheat mixed with water. When it has become a little stronger, it is driven out to join a flock of birds of its own age and fed on barley, the provision of which for laying geese also is not without advantage. It is not expedient to assign more than twenty goslings to each goose-pen, nor, again, must they be shut up at all with birds older than themselves, since the stronger kills the weaker. The coops in which they sleep must be very dry and have chaff spread on the floor, or, if this is not available, the coarsest possible hay. For the rest, the same precautions must be taken as for other kinds of young birds to prevent a grass-snake or a viper or a cat or even a weasel from being able to catch them; for these pestilential creatures generally lay them low and destroy them while they are young and tender.

Some people put barley soaked in water by the side of geese which are sitting and do not allow them to leave the nest too often; then, when the goslings have been hatched, for the first five days they put before them pearl-barley or meal soaked in water, as they also give to peahens.

Others give them green cress cut up very small with water—a food which is very agreeable to them. Then when they have become four months old, all the biggest goslings are set aside for fattening, since a tender age is regarded as especially suitable for this process. Indeed the cramming of these birds is an easy matter; for besides pearl-barley and wheat-flour three times a day, absolutely nothing else need be given them, provided that they have facilities for drinking freely and are not allowed to wander about and are kept in a warm, shady place; for all these precautions contribute greatly to the formation of fat. In this manner even the older birds grow fat in two months, for the tenderest young brood is often brought to a plump condition in forty days. a

A place for rearing ducks requires similar attention but is more costly.

For mallard, teal, pochard and coots and similar birds, which root about in pools and marshes, can be kept in captivity. A level space is chosen and is provided with a wall fifteen feet high; then it is covered in by having lattice-work or nets of a large mesh placed over it, so that there may be no opportunity for the tame birds to fly away or for eagles or hawks to fly in. The whole of the wall is made smooth by plastering it inside and outside, so that no cat or ferret may creep through it. Then in the middle of the duck-yard a pond is dug, two feet deep, and as much space is assigned to its length and width as the local conditions permit.

The edges of the pond are paved with plaster, so that they may not be damaged by the violence of the water when it overflows (for it ought to be always running in), and they should not be raised in the form of steps but should slope down gradually, so that there may be an easy descent as if from the shore into the water. The floor of the pond along the circumference to the extent of about two-thirds of its whole dimension must be constructed with stones well rammed down and plaster, so that it may not be able to put forth any vegetation and may keep the surface of the water clear for the fowls which swim upon it.

On the other hand, the middle part of the pond should be made of earth, so that it may be sown with the Egyptian bean a and other green stuff which generally grows in the water and provides shade for the haunts of the waterfowl.

Some of them take pleasure in lingering in little plantations of tamarisk and thickets of club-rushes. Nevertheless the whole space should not for this reason be occupied by little plantations,but, as I have said, should be left free all round the circumference, so that, as they are cheered by a day of sunshine, the water fowl may vie with one another to see which swims the fastest. For just as they require to be where there are holes into which they can creep and where they can lie in wait for fresh-water creatures which are in hiding, so they are displeased if there are no open spaces in which they can roam freely..The banks of the pond should be clothed with grass to a distance of twenty feet all round and beyond this space round the wall there should be nest-boxes one foot square made of stone and covered with a smooth layer of plaster in which the birds may lay their eggs. These nest-boxes should be protected by bushes planted between them of box and myrtle which should not exceed the walls in height.

Next a continuous channel should be constructed, sunk into the ground, along which the food may be carried down every day mingling with the water, for this is how birds of this kind get their food. The foods grown on dry land which they like best are panic-grass and millet and also barley; but, where there is abundance of them, acorns and grape-husks are also provided. If there is food which grows in the water available,they are given fresh-water crayfish and small pickled river-fish and any other river animals which grow only to a small size.

They observe the same seasons for coupling as other wild birds, namely, March and the following month. During these months stalks and twigs should be scattered about everywhere in the bird-pens, so that the birds may be able to collect them and use them to build their nests. But it is most important, when anyone wishes to establish a place for rearing ducks, to collect the eggs of the said fowls in the region of the marshes, where they usually lay, and set them under farm-yard hens. For when they are hatched and reared in this way they lay aside their wild nature and undoubtedly breed shut up in the bird-pens. If you want to hand over to custody birds which have only just been caught and have been used to a life of liberty, they are slow to begin to lay in captivity. But enough has now been said about the care of fowls which swim.

In dealing with aquatic animals we come in due course to the management of fishes, the profitable nature of which, though I regard it as far removed from the business of farmers—for what things are so contrary to one another as dry land and water?—I will nevertheless not pass over. Our ancestors carried their zeal for this pursuit to such a pitch that they even imprisoned salt-water fish in fresh water and fed the grey mullet and parrot wrasse with the same care with which the lamprey and the sea-pike are now reared. The country-bred descendants of Romulus and Numa of old prided themselves greatly on the fact that, if life on the farm were compared with that in the town, it did not fall short of it in abundance of any kind;

they, therefore, not only stocked the fish-ponds which they had themselves constructed, but also filled the lakes which nature had formed, with fish-spawn brought from the sea.

Hence the Veline a and Sabatine b lakes, also the Volsinian c and Ciminian d lakes produced basse and gilt-head, and all the fishes to be found anywhere which can live in fresh water. Then an age followed which abandoned this method of keeping fish and the extravagance of the wealthy enclosed the very seas and Neptune himself, so that within the memory of our grandfathers the action and speech of Marcius Philippus e was on everyone's lips as being very witty, whereas it was the action and speech of a luxurious man.

For once when he happened to be dining at a friend's house at Casinum,f. and after having tasted a pike from a neighbouring river which was set before him had spit it out, he followed this opprobrious action with the words: Plague take me if I did not think that it was a fish. This oath caused many people to put more refinement into their gluttony and has taught learned and educated palates to loathe the basse unless it were one which had been wearied by struggling against the current of the Tiber.

Therefore Terentius Varro says: g There is no paltry or foppish fellow in these days who does not now declare that he cares not whether he has a fish-pond crowded with this sort of fish or with frogs. Yet in the very times to which

Varro ascribed this luxury, the austerity of Cato was highly commended, who, nevertheless, himself as the guardian of Lucullus sold his ward's fish-ponds for the immense sum of 400,000 sesterces. For culinary delicacies were already in great demand when fishponds were made to communicate with the sea and, just as at an earlier date Numantinus a and Isauricus b rejoiced in names taken from conquered nations, so Sergius Orata (goldfish) c and Licinius Muraena (lamprey),d who made fish-ponds their chief interest, rejoiced in the names of the fish they had captured.

But since men's moral sense has become so blunted that such behaviour is reckoned not only as customary but also as highly laudable and honourable, we too, lest we should seem to be only out-of-date critics of so many past generations, will show that the fishpond is also a source of profit which the head of a household can gain from his country estate.

He who has bought either islands or land near the sea and is unable, owing to the poverty of the soil which is generally found near the coast, to gather the fruits of the earth, should establish a source of revenue from the sea. The first step in this direction is to examine the nature of the ground where you have decided to construct your fish-ponds, for every kind of fish cannot be kept on every coast.

A muddy stretch of shore is the place for rearing flat fish, such as the' sole, the turbot and the flounder;e it is also very suitable for testaceous animals: of purple-producing shell-fish, the true purple fish; and also, of other molluscs, the oyster, small scallops, barnacles or sphondyli. f But the sandy whirlpools are not bad feeding-grounds for flat-fish—better,however, for deep-sea fish such as gilt-head and sea-braize and the Carthaginian and our own Italian maigres, but they are less suitable for shell-fish.

On the other hand a rocky sea provides excellent nourishment for fishes which bear its name, that is, are called rock-fish because they find shelter among the rocks, such as merles and wrasse and likewise black tails. a We must also know the different qualities both of shores and of seas, lest we be deceived about foreign fish;

for every fish cannot exist in every sea, the sturgeon for example, which feeds in the depths of the Pamphylian Sea b and nowhere else, and the dory in the Atlantic which in our municipality of Gades is numbered amongst the noblest of fishes and which by an ancient custom we call zeus, and the parrot wrasse which is produced in great numbers on the coasts of the whole of Asia Minor and Greece as far as Sicily but has never swum into the Ligurian c sea nor past the Gauls d into the Iberian Sea;e therefore, even if they were captured and conveyed to our fish-ponds, they could not long remain in our possession. Alone of the valuable fish the lamprey, although a native of the Tartessian and the Carpathian Sea, which is very far away, in whatever sea it finds itself a guest can thrive in strange waters. But the time has come to speak of the situation of fish-ponds.

We consider that incomparably the best pond is one which is so situated that the incoming tide of the sea expels the water of the previous tide and does not allow any stale water to remain within the enclosure; for a pond most resembles the open sea if it is stirred by the winds and its waters constantly renewed and it cannot become warm, because it keeps rolling up a wave of cold water from the bottom to the uppermost part.

The pond is either hewn in the rock, which only rarely occurs, or built of plaster on the shore; but in whatever way it is constructed, if it is kept cold by the swirl of water which is constantly flowing in, it ought to contain recesses near the bottom, some of them simple and straight to which the " scaly flocks " a may retire, others twisted into a spiral and not too wide, in which the lampreys may lurk.

Some people, however, hold that lampreys should not be mixed with fishes of another kind, because, if they are seized with madness, which sometimes happens to this sort of fish just as it happens to dogs, they very often pursue their scaly companions and chew them up and devour great numbers of them. If the nature of the ground permits, channels should be provided for the water on every side of the fish-pond; for the old water is more easily carried away if there is an outlet on the side opposite to that from which the wave forces its way in.

We are of opinion that these passages, if the lie of the ground is suitable, should be made along the lowest part of the enclosure, so that a plummet placed on the bottom of the pond may show that the level of the sea is seven feet higher; for this measurement in the depth of the water is fully enough for the fish in the pond, and there is no doubt that, the greater the depth of the sea from which the water comes, the colder it is, and this suits the swimming fishes very well. But if the place where we think of constructing the fish-pond is on a level with the surface of the sea, the pond should be excavated to the depth of nine feet, and two feet below the top streams of water should be conducted along small channels, and care must be taken that the flow is very abundant, since the quantity of water which lies below the level of the sea is only forced out by the greater violence of the fresh sea water rushing in.

Many people think that in the sides of ponds of this kind deep recesses and winding caves should be constructed for the fishes, so that there may be shadier places of retreat for them when they feel the heat.

But if a change of sea water is not continually passing through the pond, the result is to cause a contrary condition, for lurking-places of this kind do not easily admit a change of water and only with difficulty get rid of the stale water, and more harm results from the putrid water than benefit from the shade. There ought, however, to be excavated in the sides of the pond what may be described as a series of similar cells which may serve to protect the fish when they want to avoid the heat of the sun and yet at the same time let the water, which they have received, easily flow out again. It will be well to remember that gratings made of brass with small holes should be fixed in front of the channels through which the fish-pond pours out its waters, to prevent the fish from escaping. If space allows, it will not be amiss to place in various parts of the pond rocks from the sea-shore, especially those which are covered with bunches of sea-weed a and, as far as the wit of man can contrive, to represent the appearance of the sea, so that, though they are prisoners, the fish may feel their captivity as little as possible.

Having arranged stalls for them on this principle, we shall introduce our " water flock " into it, and it should be our prime concern to recall also in our dealings with rivers the advice given for our business with dry land: And consider well what every place will bear.

For we cannot, if we should wish to do so, feed in a fish-pond a multitude of red mullet, such as we have very often seen in the sea, since it is a very delicate kind of fish and most intolerant of captivity, and so only one or two out of many thousands can on rare occasions endure confinement, while, on the contrary, we frequently notice in closed waters shoals of those deep-sea fish: the sluggish grey mullet and the greedy basse.

Therefore, as I have already suggested, let us consider the quality of our sea-shore and, if we find it rocky, let us be content with it. We shall imprison in our ponds several kinds of wrasse and sea-merles and greedy sea-weasels and also basse which have no spots (for there is also a mottled kind), also floating lampreys, which are much esteemed, and any other lampreys of the rock-dwelling kind which command a high price; for it does not pay to catch, much less to keep, anything which is cheap. These same kinds of fish can also be kept in ponds on a sandy shore; for shores which are covered with slime and mud are, as I have already said, better suited to shell-fish and animals which lie at the bottom.

A different position too is required for ponds which harbour those fish which lie down, nor is the same food provided for prostrate as for upright fish. For soles and turbots and similar creatures a shallow pond is sunk two feet in that part of the shore which is never left high and dry by ebbing of deep water. Next close barriers are fixed along the edges of the pond, so that they always stand out of the water even when the tide of the sea is at its highest; then dams are thrown up all round so as to encompass the pond in their embrace and at the same time to rise above its level. For in this way the violence of the sea is broken by the barriers of a bank, and the fish, keeping in calm water, are not driven out of their usual haunts nor is the pond itself filled with a collection of sea-weed which the force of the sea throws up in stormy weather.

It will, however, be necessary that cuts should be made in the moles at some points, forming small but narrow passages with meandering course, so that, however fierce a winter storm is raving, they may let the sea-water pass in without creating a wave.

The diet of flat fish ought to be softer than that of rock-fish, for, lacking teeth, they either lick up their food or swallow it whole, being unable to chew it.

It is, therefore, fitting that decaying pilchards or over-salted herrings or rotten sardines, also the gills of parrot wrasse and any part of the intestines of a young tunny or lizard-fish, also the entrails of a mackerel, a dog-fish or a spindle-fish,0 and, not to go into further details, the refuse of any salted fish which is swept out of fishmongers' shops.

We have named several kinds, not because they are all produced on every coast, but in order to mention some of those which it will be possible to provide. Of fruits too the green fig cut open is suitable and a ripe arbutus-berry crushed by the fingers, likewise a soft sorb-apple squeezed out and any foods which most closely resemble things which can be easily swallowed, such as curds fresh from the milk-pail, if local conditions and the cheap price of milk make this possible. No food, however, is so suitable for giving them as the diet of salt fish already mentioned, since it has a strong odour;

for every flat fish tracks down its food rather by scent than by sight. For lying constantly on its back it looks towards what is above it and does not easily see things which are on a level with itself on the right or left. When, therefore, salted fish is put in its way, it follows the scent of it and so reaches its food.

The other kinds of fish, namely those which live among the rocks and in the open sea, can quite well be fed on this diet, but still better on fresh food.For a newly caught pilchard, crayfish or small goby, in a word any fish of minute growth serves as food for a larger fish. If, however, the violence of the winter does not allow this kind of food to be given, bits of coarse bread or any fruits that are in season are cut up and given. Dried figs indeed are always offered to them, an excellent thing to do if they are abundant as they are in the regions of Baetica and Numidia. But the mistake ought not to be made, which many people make, of providing no food at all on the ground that the fish can maintain themselves for a long time even when they are shut up; for unless a fish is fattened with food provided by its owner, when it is brought to the fish-market, its leanness shows that it has not been caught in the open sea but brought out of a place of confinement, and on this account a large sum is knocked off the price.

Let this account of the method of feeding fish on the farm-estate bring our present discourse to a close, lest the reader be wearied with the immoderate length of this volume. In the next book we will return to the management of wild stock and the culture of bees.