304 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



indicated by certain signs.' After food has been 

 given, and their heads have been thoroughly cleansed 

 to ensure the absence of lice, the birds are shut up 

 again. This treatment is continued for twenty-five 

 days, at the end of which they are fully fattened. 

 21 Some people feed them on wheaten bread steeped 

 in water mixed with a sound and fragrant wine, and 

 manage to have them fat and tender in twenty days 

 If they lose appetite through excessive feeding, the 

 daily ration must be decreased by the same differ- 

 ence as it increased during the first ten days, tha 

 is to say, it must be diminished by the same daily 

 amount in such a way that the amounts given on 

 the twentieth and the first day are equal. I n the same 

 way wood-pigeons are fed and fattened. 



CHAPTER X 



OF GEESE 



I Now, said Axius, pass on to the kind which is 

 not satisfied with the farm-house and dry land ^ 

 only, but needs ponds as well. This kind you 

 Graecophiles call amphibious {a(M<pi^iov) while to the 



^ Signis. Columella (viil, 7, 3): " Nor must you give them 

 a second meal until you are sure by feeling the crop that 

 nothing of the first remains." 



^ Terra. Cf. iii, 3, 2,'. In altera specie sunt quae non sunt 

 contentae terra solum sed etiam aquam requirunt, ut sunt 

 anseres^ querquedulae, anates. 



I 



