Ill] OF FIELDFARES 267 



for the birds to perch on, and also rods sloping to 

 the ground from the wall, with other rods fastened 

 cross-wise like the rungs of a ladder, and resem- 

 bling the railings in a theatre. Water should flow 

 down to the ground for them to drink, and for food 

 cakes should be placed there. These cakes are 

 mostly made of figs and barley well mixed together 

 and rolled. Twenty days before fieldfares are wanted 

 they are given a more liberal diet, that is, more 

 food is set before them, and the flour now used is 

 of a finer quality. In this building there should be 

 recesses furnished with several shelves to supple- 

 5 ment the perches, and, on the other hand, it is here 

 (on the shelves) that the bird-keeper^ generally 

 keeps on the spot those birds which have died in 

 the aviary, so as to account for them to his master. 

 When those birds that are fit are to be removed 

 [for sale] from this aviary, they must be transferred 



' Aviarium. The Archetype has contra hie aviarium, etc. 

 Much has been written about this passage by Gesner, Schneider, 

 Keil — the latter indicating a supposed lacuna in the text by a 

 star — so that it is with much distrust iudicoli met that I pro- 

 pose what appears a very simple and almost certain emenda- 

 tion, namely, aviarius instead of aviarium. The bird-keeper 

 (aviarius) will keep any birds here that have died until his 

 master sees them, etc. Thus there is a subject to solei, which 

 is badly wanted, for though with Varro there is often an 

 ellipsis of dominusy I can find no instance where the word 

 slave — not previously mentioned — must be supplied. So, too, 

 there is no need to change the hie of the Archetype into hoey 

 there is no lacuna, and the whole sentence is irreproachable 

 both in sense and construction. 



