266 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



3 the birds be harmed by the mud. The aviary should 

 have a door low and narrow, and preferably of the 

 kind called *'coclia"^ (rotating cage), such as is 

 usually found in the amphitheatre where bulls 

 fight. It must have but few windows, through 

 which the trees and birds outside cannot be seen, 

 for the sight of these and the longing for them 

 make the imprisoned birds pine away. The place 

 should have just enough light to let them see where 

 to perch and where to find their food and water. 

 About the doors and windows there should be a 

 coating of smooth plaster, that no mouse or other 



4 animal may anywhere enter. Around the walls of 

 this building on the inside should be many poles 



can water which actually overflows be made to go out per 

 Jistulam7 So Ursinus proposed to expunge these words as 

 being a gloss explicative of caduca. These removed the trans- 

 lation would go smoothly: "And the falling water (running 

 down the gutters) goes out from them by means of a pipe." 



Columella's description of the way in which water is sup- 

 plied to the hen-house is interesting (viii, 3, 8) : Sunt qui aut 

 aqua replentur aut cibo plumhei canales^ quos magis utiles esse 

 ligneos aut fictiles covipertum est. Hi superpositis operculis 

 clauduntur et a lateribus super mediam partem per spatia pal- 

 maria modicis forantur cavis ita ut avium capita possint ad- 

 mittere. 



^ Quod cocliam appellant, etc. I have given Gesner's inter- 

 pretation of this passage ; Schneider in his index takes coclia 

 to be equivalent to cataphracta, i.e., a sort of portcullis. I 

 have translated cavea amphitheatre with Gesner, but suspect 

 the text. In Horace (A. P., 473) it means the cage itself; 



ac velut ursus 

 Obiecto caveae valuit sifrangere clatros. 



