Ill] OF DUCKS 309 



as much as they can eat, three times a day. Immedi- 

 ately after a meal they are allowed to drink copiously. 

 Thus treated, they become fat in about two months. 

 After every meal the place should be cleansed, for 

 they like a clean place, though they themselves 

 never leave a place clean where they have been. 



CHAPTER XI 



OF DUCKS 



I Those who intend to keep flocks of ducks and to 

 set up a nessotrophion (duck-nursery)^ should in 



*' They eat three times a day and at midnight, and are great 

 drinkers. " 



' Nessotrophion {vriaaoTpo(puov). This Is described in detail 

 and with delightful clearness by Columella (viii, 15): a level 

 piece of ground was chosen and enclosed by a wall fifteen feet 

 high. The roof was of lattice work or nets with wide meshes. 

 The wall was coated with smooth plaster to prevent pole-cat 

 or ferret from getting in, and in the middle of the duck-house 

 ,a pond was dug two feet deep, the margin of which was 

 made of cement {signino, ' ' a plaster composed of powdered 

 tiles mixed with mortar) and descended in a gentle slope to 

 the water. The pond had a stone bottom covering two-thirds 

 of its area, to prevent weeds rising to the surface ; the centre 

 was uncovered and planted with the Egyptian bean and other 

 green water plants. For twenty feet all round the pond the 

 banks were clothed with grass, and beyond this piece of 

 ground was the wall in which were the nesting-places, each a 

 foot square. These were covered by bushes of box or myrtle, 

 planted between them, which bushes did not overtop the 



