28 CATO A PIGEON-FATTER. [CHAP. i. 



food : for it is only necessary that food should be thrown 

 before them, but especially millet : not that they gather 

 less flesh upon wheat or other grain, but because they 

 are exceedingly fond of this seed. The fatting-places 

 for them are not, as for Pigeons, lockers or hollow cells ; 

 but brackets, fixed in line along the wall, hold little 

 hempen mats, nets being stretched over them to pre- 

 vent their flying, which would diminish their fleshiness. 

 In these places they are assiduously fed with millet or 

 wheat : but those seeds ought only to be given in a 

 dry state. Half a bushel (semodius) of food each day 

 suffices for a hundred and twenty Turtles. Water con- 

 stantly fresh, and as clean as possible, is given in the 

 same vessels as are used for Pigeons and Hens ; and the 

 mats are cleaned lest the dung should bum their feet, 

 which, however, ought to be carefully laid aside for the 

 culture of the fields and the trees, as ought that of all 

 except the water birds. This bird is not so suitable 

 for fatting in its adult state, as when very young. 

 Therefore about harvest, when the brood has got 

 strength, is the time to choose."* 



Even the severe Cato could advise a troublesome 

 method of fatting Wood Pigeons. He was military 

 tribune B.C. 189. His work on agriculture is a collec- 

 tion of receipts rather than a complete treatise, but is 

 always respectfully referred to by other Roman writers on 

 agriculture. We give the original passage as a curious 

 specimen of Latinity, and of a style which would not 

 be allowed to pass current in a university prize essay : 

 " Palumbum recentem ut prensus erit, ei fabam coc- 

 tam tostam primum dato ; ex ore in ejus os inflate item 



* Columella, viii. 9, our own translation. 



