on early days of Aviculture.



71



minister to their pleasures and the demands of their dainty appetites, which

they tried by every possible means to satisfy. Lucullus had an aviary built in

his dining hall, so that when the dishes of cooked birds were brought in at his

banquets, he could at the same time watch the living ones and enjoy their

colours, movements and gambols. This Roman also had, Varro states, an

‘ Ornithon ’ (bird-house), which was so large that it could hold a thousand

Fieldfares,* Blackbirds, Ortolans and Quails, which were fattened on a paste

made of figs and meal. The writers of those times give very complete descrip¬

tions of these bird-houses and the methods of fattening employed, and we

learn tha t in the state butcheries there were commonly special cages to let on

hire, in which birds were fattened up before sale.”


A full account of these old Roman bird-houses is to be found

in an old book, ‘ The Architecture of Birds,’ published in 1831 under

the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Know¬

ledge, but without any author’s name on the front page. This

account has no apparent connection with the title of the book, but is

quite interesting, and well supplements what Dr. Russ has to tell us,

to much of which, too, the same objection might be made—that

instead of dealing with the early days of real aviculture, it is much

more a record of ancient poultry-yards and food supplies. But let

that pass, and we will see what our anonymous friend of 1831 has

to say about these “ voleries,” as he calls them. He tells us that his

information is derived from the writings of Varro and Columella, and

writes as follows:


“Each of these voleries contained many thousand Thrushes and Black¬

birds, besides other birds excellent for eating, such as Quails and Ortolans. So

numerous were these voleries in the vicinity of Rome, and in the teiritory of

the Sabines, that the dung of the thrushes was employed to manure the lands,

and what is remarkable to fatten oxen and hogs.f These Thrushes had little

liberty in their prisons, for they were never suffered to go abroad, and they laid

no eggs ; + but as they were supplied with abundance of choice food, they

fattened to the great profit of the proprietor. Each fat thrush, except at the

time of migration, sold for three denarii, equal to about two shillings sterling;

and on the occasion of a triumph or public festival, this sort of trade yielded a

profit of twelve hundred per cent. The voleries were a kind of vaulted courts,

the inside furnished with a number of roosts. The door was very low ; the



* Russ’ word is “ Krammetsvogel ” (= Fieldfare), but he probably meant Thrushes,

f Had the writer been a bird fancier he would have seen nothing remarkable in this.

The half-digested remains of the fig and meal paste would form a most

fattening food for animals, and one which would be readily eaten by cattle,

much more so by pigs.


+ Were either of these likely? This author was certainly not a bird fancier. —

E. H.



