302 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



**meleagrides" ^ by the Greeks. These birds were 

 the last to be introduced from kitchen to dining- 

 room ^ by the luxurious taste of man. Owing to their 

 scarcity they are extremely costly. 

 [9 Of the three kinds barn-door fowls are most 

 commonly fattened for market. They are confined 

 in a place that is moderately warm, of small dimen- 

 sions and admitting but little light, as movement 

 and light sets them free ' from fat. For fattening, 



^ Meleagridas. Cf. Pliny (x, 26): Simili viodo pugnant 

 Meleagrides in Boeotia. Africae hoc est gallinarum genus 

 gibberum, variis sparsum plumis ; quae novissimae sunt peri- 

 gfinarum avium in mensas receptae propter ingratum virus. 

 Verum Meleagri tumulus nobiles e as fecit. Aristotle (H. A., 

 vi, 2, 2) mentions the Meleagris once only, and says that their 

 eggs are spotted : rwr hi Kareariyfisva diov to. toSv fitXiaypidiov Kai 

 (^aaiavuiv. 



Columella (viii, 2, 2) distinguishes between the Meleagris 

 and the African hen : Africana est quam plerique Numidicam 

 dicunt meleagridi similis, nisi quod rutilam galeam {paleam ?) 

 et cristani capite gerity quae utraque sunt in Meleagride caerulea. 

 Durand de la Malle remarks on this : Columelle n'avait pas 

 observS ces oiseaux d'assez pres pour s" apercevoir que la premikre 

 itait la femelle et la seconde le male d'une seule et meme espkce, 

 and refers to Buffbn (Hist, des Oiseaux, iii, p. 234). The 

 guinea fowl, so well known to the Greeks and Romans, seems 

 to have disappeared from Europe in the Middle Ages and to 

 have been re-discovered only when Europeans sailed to India 

 by the West Coast of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope 

 (D. de la Malle). 



^ Cenantium. Keil's excellent emendation for the genanium 

 of the MSS. 



^ Vindicta was the praetor's rod (properly festuca) laid on 

 the head of a slave who was being made a free man. Colu- 



I 



