300 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



15 not only the chickens, but the whole poultry-yard 

 should be taken out both in summer and at all times 

 when the weather is mild and it is sunny; but a net 

 must be stretched overhead to prevent them from 

 flying out of the enclosure or a hawk or any othei 

 bird of prey from flying in from outside. Excessive] 

 heat or cold must be avoided/ as either is bad foi 

 them. As soon as they have their wing-feathers theyj 

 should be trained to follow one or two hens, so thati 

 the other hens may be free to breed instead of spend- 



i6 ing their time in rearing young ones. Sitting shoul( 

 begin just after the time of new moon, for as a ruh 

 the majority of sittings which are begun before this 

 time do not turn out well. They take about twent] 

 days to hatch. As I have said too much, perhaps,] 

 about these barn-door fowls, I will make up for it 

 by the brevity with which I discuss the remaininj 

 topics. 



Wild ^ hens are of rare occurrence in the city and] 



-hilis have two meanings; e.g.^ penetrahilis in Ovid (Met.,j 

 xii, 166) means " penetrable " {Quod iuvenis corpus millo pene» 

 trahile telo)\ in Vergil "penetrating." Cf. Georg,, i, 93: 

 penetrabile frigusy etc. So in English the word "healthy" 

 has two senses. 



^ Kvitantein. irpoaKTsov . . . evXafSovfievov to Kav/ia. Cf. i, 

 23, 3 : Quaedam etiam serenda non tarn propter praesentem 

 fructum quam in annum prospicientem. 



^ Gallinae rusticae. Schneider and Keil think that this Is 

 the Italian partridge. Durand de la Malle (Acad, des Inscrip- 

 tions et Belles Lettres, 1838) considers them to have been fowls 

 which had reverted to the primitive type. La poule, redevenue 

 sauvage, ne perpituait pas son esphce dans la captivite en Italie 



