BOOK VIII. II. 3-6 



capons ; they are given this name because they have 

 been castrated to rid them of sexual desire. They 

 do not, however, suffer castration by the loss of their 

 genital organs but by having their spurs burnt with 

 a red-hot iron ; when these have been consumed by 

 the force of the fire, they are smeared with potter's 

 clay until the sores which have been caused heal up. 



The profit from keeping the farm-yard type of fowl 4 

 is not to be despised if a scientific method of rearing 

 them is put into operation, which most of the Greeks 

 and in particular the people of Delos have made 

 famous. The Greeks, however, since they desired 

 height of body and determined courage in the fray, 

 esteemed most highly the Tanagran " and Rhodian 

 breeds and likewise the Chalcidian ^ and Median " 

 (called by the ignorant vulgar Melian,'* by the change 

 of one letter). We take most pleasure in our own 5 

 native breed ; however, we lack the zeal displayed by 

 the Greeks who prepared the fiercest birds they could 

 find for contests and fighting. Our aim is to establish 

 a source of income for an industrious master of a 

 house, not for a trainer of quarrelsome birds, whose 

 whole patrimony, pledged in a gamble, generally is 

 snatched from him by a victorious fighting ^-cock. 



He, therefore, who shall be minded to follow our 6 

 instructions, should consider first with how many and 

 what kind of breeding-hens he ought to provide 

 himself, and then how he ought to look after and 

 feed them ; next, at what seasons of the year he ought 

 to reserve the eggs which they produce ; then he 

 should arrange for their setting and hatching, and 

 finally take thought for the proper rearing of the 



^ I.e. from the island of Melos, one of the Cyclades. 

 ' A ' boxer.' 



325 



