Ill] OF DORMICE 321 



CHAPTER XV 



OF DORMICE 



1 The place where dormice are kept is of a different 

 kind, as it is an enclosure bounded not by water, 

 but by a wall the whole of which is faced on the 

 inside with smooth stone or plaster, to prevent the 

 dormouse from crawling out. In it should be small 

 acorn-bearing^ trees. When these are not bearing, 

 acorns and chestnuts should be thrown inside the 



2 wall for the dormice to eat their fill. Fairly wide holes 

 are to be made for them in which they can bring forth 

 their young. There should not be much water, as 

 they take but little of it, and like a dry place. They 

 are fattened in jars, which many people keep inside 

 the villa. These jars made by the potter differ 

 greatly in their construction from others, as grooves 

 (paths) are made in their sides, and a hollow in 

 which to place food. Into this jar are put acorns, 

 walnuts, or chestnuts. A lid is put on the jars, and 

 in the darkness the dormice grow fat." 



1 Quae ferant glandem. Pliny (xvl, 6) mentions beech nuts 

 {Jagiglans) in this connection : Fagi glans murihus gratissima 

 est . . . glires quoque saginat^ expedit et turdis, so that the 

 word is probably not used here by Varro in the special sense 

 as given by Pliny {loc. cit.) : glandem, quae proprie intelJegitur, 

 ferunt rohur, quercuSy esculus, cerrus, ilex suher. 



^ Saginantur. Cf. Pliny (viii, 57) : Semiferum et ipsum 

 animal, cui vivaria in doliis idem qui apris (Fulvlus Lippinus) 

 instituit. Qua in re notatum non congregari nisi populares 



Y 



