ORDER PASSERES. 517 



among the feathered game, preserved these birds throughout 

 theenth-e year, and fattened them in their extensive aviaries. 



Each of these contained many thousands of thrushes, black- 

 birds, and other birds good for eating. They were so nume- 

 rous in the neighbourhood of Rome, that thrush''s dung was 

 employed as manure to fertilize the land. It was also em- 

 ployed to fatten oxen and pigs. The thrushes were kept very 

 closely confined, and considerably crowded. But their food 

 was abundant and well chosen, and they grew fat rapidly. 

 These aviaries were vaulted pavilions, furnished within with a 

 great quantity of roosts. The doors were very low, there 

 were but few windows, and always so turned, that the prison- 

 ers could see neither the woods nor country, nor even the birds 

 which hovered outside, so that nothing might hinder them from 

 growing fat. They were only left as much light as was neces- 

 sary to enable them to distinguish what they chiefly wanted. 

 They were fed with millet, which was peeled and pounded and 

 formed into a kind of paste with bruised figs and flour ; 

 besides which they received berries of the mastick-tree, of 

 myrtle, and of ivy, and every thing which could render their 

 flesh succulent and high flavoured- A small rivulet of running 

 water traversed the aviary, for them to drink from. Those 

 which were intended to be eaten in succession, received for 

 twenty days before they were taken for that purpose an aug- 

 mentation of the best nutriment. Particular care was taken 

 to make such as seemed fit for the table pass very quietly into a 

 particular place which communicated with the aviary, and they 

 were not taken until the communication had been closely shut, 

 to prevent the others from being disturbed. To make them 

 support their captivity with greater patience, the aviary was 

 carpeted with green branches, and fresh turf, often renewed, 

 and in fact, the better the proprietor understood his own inter- 

 ests the better the birds were treated. This method succeeded 

 almost invariably in taming birds, however recently they might 

 have been imprisoned. Those, however, which had been newly 



Vol. VI. 2 M 



