CHAP. xi.J FATTING BY THE ANCIENTS. 395 



according to an established regimen. The creatures 

 subjected to this process form an entirely distinct class 

 from those known as Game Birds, as well as from those 

 that are reared in a domestic state for the sake of their 

 flesh ; so that the poulterer's list, in days of yore, was 

 much more rich than it now is. It would comprise 

 three different descriptions of birds ; viz., those bred at 

 home, or true poultry ; those killed, in their season, in 

 a condition fit for table, and our ancestors were much 

 more comprehensive in their tastes, in this respect, 

 than we are, for even Bittern might be unmentionable, 

 after a first trial, to palates polite ; and those taken 

 wild, and subsequently fed up in captivity, or " fatted 

 fowl." There is little doubt that the fatted fowl men 

 tioned at 1 Kings iv. 23, were of this last class, and not 

 fat cocks and hens, as is usually supposed ; for in the 

 Septuagint, the words thus rendered in our version are, 

 literally, " birds, select fatted ones from the select." 

 The repeated and appropriate allusions in the books of 

 Psalms and Proverbs to the net of the fowler, and the 

 escape of the bird from the snare, will occur to every 

 reader. 



Oato, about 200 years before Christ, gives directions* 

 for the fatting of fresh-caught Wood-pigeons on roasted 

 beans, bean-meal, &c. His treatise is sternly brief, or 

 he. doubtless would have told us how to bring other 

 birds also into good order ; but Varro and Columella, 

 writing at the commencement of the Christian sera, 

 much extend the list. Varro attaches great importance 

 to the fatting (on account of the high price they 

 fetched) of Thrushes, MUiaria (our Ortolans, as likely 

 as not), Quails, Wood-pigeons, and Turtles. In like 

 manner TeaL Pintail Ducks, Mallard, &c., were fat- 

 * Cap. xc. 



