BOOK VIII. III. 4-7 



be built so thick as to allow nesting-places for the hens 

 to be cut out of them in a row, where either the eggs 

 may be laid or the chickens hatched ; for this is both 

 healthier and neater than what some people do when 

 they forcibly drive pegs into the walls and support 

 wicker-work baskets on them. But in front of either 5 

 the walls which have been hollowed, as we have 

 described, or of the wicker-work basket, porches must 

 be placed through which the breeding-hens may reach 

 their nests for the purpose of either laying eggs or 

 sitting on them ; for they ought not to fly into the 

 nests themselves, lest, as they leap into them, they 

 break the eggs with their feet. Next a means of 6 

 ascent for the hens to the lofts across each of the 

 cells is provided by attaching to the wall moderately 

 sized planks which are roughened a little by having 

 steps made on them, so that the hens may not find 

 them shppery when they fly on to them. Similarly 

 httle ladders should be attached on the outside lead- 

 ing from the poultry-yard to the little windows 

 mentioned above, by which the birds may creep in 

 for their nightly repose. But we shall take particular 

 care that these poultry-houses and those about which 

 we shall be speaking presently, are made smooth, 

 within and without, with plaster-work, so that no cat 

 or snake may have access to the fowls and that 

 equally hurtful pests may be kept away. 



It is not expedient that the hen should rest on a 7 

 loft's floor when it is asleep, lest it be harmed by 

 its OAvn dung, because this, if it has adhered to its 

 crooked feet, causes gout. That this calamity may be 

 avoided, perches should be hewn square lest their 

 rounded smoothness should fail to give the bird a 

 good hold when it springs up. After being squared 



335 



