Ill] OF PEACOCKS 279 



To form a flock birds of good age and shape 

 are bought, for to this creature nature has given 

 the palm for shapeliness and beauty over all other 

 winged things. Pea-hens under two^ years old are 

 no use for breeding, and they cease to be so when 



3 too old. They eat any kind of grain given them, 

 with a preference for barley. Seius gives them a 

 modius (peck) of barley each per month, taking 

 care, however, to increase the allowance (for the 

 cock birds) at the breeding season before copula- 

 tion begins. He expects his keeper to produce 

 three chicks to each pea-hen, and for each chicken 

 when grown he gets 50 denarii" {£1 12^.), so that 



4 no bird is so profitable as the peacock. He also 

 buys eggs and puts them under hens, and the 

 chickens that are hatched he takes from them and 

 puts in the domed building^ where he keeps his 



miles due south of Elba. Cf. Columella (viii, 11, i): Itaque 

 hoc genus alitum nemorosis et parvulis insults, quales ohiacent 

 Italiae facillime continetur. Nam quoniam nee suhlimiter potest 

 nee per longa spatia volitare, turn etiam quia Juris ac noxiorum 

 animalium rapinae metus non est sine custode lato vagatur 

 maioremque pahuli partem sibi acquirit. 



' Bimae should almost certainly be trimae, for, as Schneider 

 points out, Aristotle, Columella, Pliny, Aelian, and the Geo- 

 ponica all fix three years as the earliest age at which pea-hens 

 begin to lay, and this is confirmed by modern experience. 



^ Quinquagenis denariis. Fifty denarii = 100 sesterces = 

 about £,1 \2s. 



' Testudinem. For an interesting and detailed account of 

 the "peacock-house" cf. Columella, viii, 11, 3. In this he 

 states that separate pens must be made, one for each cock- 

 bird and the five hens assigned to him. 



