BOOK VIII. X. 2-6 



These poles ought not to be raised higher from the 

 ground than a man's height allows, so that they may 

 be within his reach when he is standing up. The 3 

 food is usually placed in those parts of the aviary 

 which have no perches above them, so that it may 

 remain more clean. Dried figs, carefully crushed and 

 mixed with fine flour, ought always to be provided, 

 so abundantly indeed that some is left over. Some 

 people chew a fig and then offer it to the thrushes ; 4 

 but it is scarcely expedient to do this where the 

 number of thrushes is large, because people to chew 

 the figs cost a good deal to hire and themselves eat 

 an appreciable quantity because of the pleasant taste. 

 Many people think that a variety of food ought to be 

 provided, lest the thrushes take a dislike to a single 

 food. This variety consists in putting before themi 

 seeds of myrtle and mastic, also wild olive and ivy 

 berries and likewise the fruit of the strawberry-tree, 5 

 for these are the things for which this kind of bird 

 generally seeks in the fields, and so they do away 

 with the distaste for food which they feel in their 

 idle captivity in the aviaries and make the bird 

 population there more voracious, which is a great 

 advantage ; for the more they eat the quicker they 

 get fat. Little troughs, however, full of millet are 

 always placed near them since it is the most solid part 

 of their diet ; for the foods which we have mentioned 

 above are given them as relishes. Vessels for the 6 

 supply of fresh, clean water should be not unlike those 

 for poultry. 



Thanks to the expenditure in this way of money 

 and care, so Marcus Terentius informs us,* these 

 birds were often bought for three denarii a piece in 

 our grandfathers' time, when those who celebrated 



37i 



