Ill] OF PIGEONS 283 



broad, should be attached to the wall, which the 

 birds can use as a landing, and walk on to it when 



5 they like. There should be water flowing ^ in for 

 their drinking and washing, for pigeons are very 

 clean birds. The pigeon-keeper should, therefore, 

 sweep the place out several times a month, as the 

 dirt made there is an excellent manure, so much 

 so that some authors speak of it as the best of all. 

 If any pigeon has come to any harm the keeper 

 must look after it, if one has died he must remove it, 

 and if any young birds are fit for sale he must bring 



6 them out. He must also have a fixed place, which 

 is shut ^ off from the others by a net, to which the 

 hen-birds that are sitting may be transferred, and 



* Quae influat. The reading of the Archetype is quo influai^ 

 which is supported by the Geoponica (xiv, 6) : "A fairly large 

 bathing place should be dug in the pigeon-house for the birds 

 to bathe and drink in, so that the keeper may not have to 

 disturb the birds frequently in order to give them water." 

 Columella, however (viii, 8, 5), says that "the drinking ves- 

 sels should be similar to those used for hens, should admit 

 only the necks of the birds, and should be too narrow to allow 

 of their bathing, which is bad for the eggs or chickens on 

 which they are sitting." 



^ Disclusum ab aliis. Cf. Columella (viii, 8, 4): "On the 

 outside, too, the walls should have a coating of smooth 

 plaster — especially about the window. This must be so situ- 

 ated as to admit the sunlight for the greater part of the 

 winter's day, and it should have appended to it a fairly large 

 house protected by nets in order to keep out the hawks, to 

 admit the pigeons that are going out to sun themselves, and 

 to let the mother birds, sitting on eggs or chickens, out to 

 the fields, lest saddened by the slavery of continuous confine- 

 ment they fall sick. When they have flown about the build- 



