BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



theatre, which, it must be remembered, was 

 open to the sky, and there releasing them, that 

 they might show their ''homing" powers. 



The prices sometimes asked and paid for 

 pigeons also points to this. For a handsome 

 pair of well-bred birds, free from all blemish, 

 and of a popular colour or mixture of colours, 

 as much as two hundred sesterces — about thirty 

 shillings — was a common price; even a thous- 

 and sesterces was occasionally demanded, and 

 a case is cited where sixteen hundred had been 

 offered and refused. Persons took up pigeon- 

 breeding as a trade or an amusement, or a 

 blend of both, and might possess a house, ap- 

 pliances, and birds to the value of one hundred 

 thousand sesterces, say eight hundred pounds. 

 Varro,inoneofthose imaginary conversations 

 in which he liked to impart his agricultural 

 knowledge, strongly advises a friend to master 

 in Rome the technicalities of the business, as 

 he there would have before him many ex- 

 amples, and might then establish his breeding- 

 place in the country. He goes on to offer the 

 truly alluring return of fifty per cent per diem! 

 but, unfortunately, this rosy prospect is not sup- 



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