CHAPTER TWO 



THE FRENCH 



COLOMBIER 



It does not appear that any restrictions 

 governed the possession of a Roman colum- 

 barium; but, leaving Italy for France, we 

 come to legislation on the subject — legislation 

 which was at once intricate and oppressive in 

 its nature, but upon which we, whose withers 

 are unwrung, can look back with interest. 

 Varro remarks that the feeding of pigeons was 

 not a matter of great cost, the birds enjoying 

 freedom and ''fending" for themselves during 

 some ten months out of twelve. That was, and 

 still is, perfectly true, so far as the birds' 

 owners were concerned; but it is to be re- 

 membered that the pigeons picked up their 

 living largely at the cost of others, feeding in 

 the cultivated fields, and doing great damage 

 to the crops. This was the case in medieval 

 France, as it had been in the vicinity of Rome; 

 and the depredations of a great man's pigeons 

 maybe wellincluded in that listof wrongs from 

 which the peasantry of France had suffered 

 through the centuries, and as an item by no 



c ^ 17 



