3IO VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



the first place choose a marshy place, if that be 

 possible, as ducks prefer such a one to any other. 

 Failing that, the best place is where there is a 

 natural pool or pond, or an artificial tank, to which 



2 they can go down by steps. The enclosure where 

 they live should have a wall as much as fifteen feet 

 high, like that you saw at Seius's country-house, 

 and it should have but one entrance. All round the 

 wall on the inside is a wide ledge, on which close 

 to the wall should be covered nesting-places, and in 

 front of them the outer landing of the ducks — a level 

 floor of cement made of broken pottery. In it there 

 is a gutter running the whole length, where food is 

 set for them, and into which water runs. For so 



3 they take their food. All the walls should be smoothly 

 plastered to prevent pole-cats or other animals enter- 

 ing to harm the birds, and the whole enclosure is 

 covered over by a net with wide meshes, to prevent 

 a hawk from flying in, or a duck from flying out. 

 The food given them is wheat, barley, or grape-refuse 

 — sometimes also river cray-fish ^ and certain other 



wall. A gutter was let into the ground and down It ran the 

 birds' food mixed with water. 



^ Cammari. The precise meaning of this word is not 

 known, but it seems to have meant a sort of crab. That it 

 was red when cooked and was a cheap and little esteemed 

 food appears from Martial (ii, 43, 11) : 



Immodici tihijlava tegunt chrysendeta mulli 

 Concolor in nostra^ cammare lana rubes. 



Columella (viil, 15, 6), a propos of the feeding of ducks, says : 

 Ubi copia est, etiam glans ac vinacea praebeniur. Aquatilis 



