Ill] OF POULTRY 293 



doubtless handsome, and excellent for cock fights 

 when matched with one another, they are poor 

 sires. 



Supposing that you intend to feed two hundred 

 fowls you must give them an enclosed space, and 

 have two hen-houses^ built in it close together 



no good word for bantams {pumiles aves) as they are not pro- 

 lific or profitable, and the cocks are quarrelsome and pJerumque 

 ceteros infestat et non patitur inire feminas^ cum ipse pluribus 

 sufficere non queat. 



* Duae caveae. Columella's lucid account (viii, 3) of the 

 hen-house may be compared with this. There were three 

 contiguous cellae of which the middle one was the least, being 

 7 ft. in every dimension. The other two were 12 ft. by 12 ft. 

 by 7 ft. wide, and were each divided into two storeys, the 

 lower chamber being 7 ft. high, the upper 4 ft. The entrance 

 to the building was in the middle cella\ of the two lateral 

 cellae the entrances right and left adjoined the back wall. In 

 the centre of this back wall was a fire-place, the smoke from 

 which drifted into each of the lateral chambers, "for," says 

 Columella, " smoke is very salutary for hens," Places were 

 cut out in the walls to serve as nests — or stakes were driven 

 firmly in, and supported wicker baskets. In front of the nests 

 were " landings " on which the hens might alight when going 

 to lay or sit, for if they flew directly on to the nests they were 

 apt to smash the eggs. Tlie birds were not to sleep on the 

 floors "as dung does harm to their feet and produces gout "; 

 and their perches were cut square. Water (which must be 

 clean, for, if foul, it gives them the pip) was served to them in 

 wooden or earthenware troughs provided with lids; it was 

 drunk by the birds through holes in the sides which were just 

 big enough to admit their necks. In the yard plenty of dust 

 or ashes was laid down along the walls — in the colonnades or 

 wherever there was a protecting roof— so tliat the hens might 

 clean their feathers by rolling in it. 



