CHAP. I.] CHARMS FOR DOVECOTES. 31 



each other, and furtively to return home with a party of 

 followers."* 



Columella, equally anxious that the dovecote should 

 not be deserted, suggests rational means of keeping the 

 birds at home, at the same time that he does not forget 

 the Kestrel. " But their place ought to be frequently 

 swept out and cleansed, for the neater it is kept, the 

 more delight will the birds appear to take in it ; and so 

 fastidious are they, that if they have the liberty they 

 will often leave their own home in disgust, which fre- 

 quently happens in those districts where they are 

 allowed free egress. The old precept teaches how to 

 prevent that misfortune. A sort of Hawk is called 

 by the country people tinunculus : the young of this 

 bird are shut up in earthen vessels, one in each, 

 and closed in alive; the vessels are smeared with 

 plaster, and suspended in the corners of the pigeon- 

 house, by which means the birds are so attached to the 

 place that they never desert it."f 



It may be supposed that if the Kestrel does drive off 

 larger birds of prey, it is with the motive of protecting 

 his own household rather than that of the Pigeons, 

 although they may be the more secure for the temporary 

 truce. But other potent charms for the increase of 

 columbine prosperity have had their advocates : one 

 worthy recommends the skull of an old man to be hung 

 up in the dove-house, thereby causing the Pigeons to 

 multiply and remain quietly at home ; another has faith 

 in hanging a piece of the thong or halter with which a 

 man has been strangled, from each window (per omnes 

 fenestras), which those may try who are careless about 



* Pliny's Hist. x. 52. t Columella, viii. 8. 



