COLUMBARIUM 



nished the brightness of metal mirrors, but 

 proved fatal to young unfledged pigeons, which 

 we now call "squabs." Allusion is also made to 

 the special fondness of pigeons for the mixed 

 grain called by the Romans farrago, a word 

 which has descended to us with a different 

 sense. 



Much interesting information as to Roman 

 pigeon- keeping will be found in the proper 

 section of Varro's Rerum Rusticarum. Two 

 different breeds were chiefly kept. One was 

 the wild rock pigeon, agreste, of a mixed or 

 dappled colour; shy in its habits, keeping to 

 house gables or high towers, feeding in the 

 distant fields. The other, clementtus, was a 

 white bird; very common, and quite tame 

 enough to feed about the doorstep, but not 

 greatly in request with pigeon-keepers, for the 

 reason that its snowy plumage made it a con- 

 spicuous prey for hawks. The birds most 

 largely bred for table were a cross {miscellum) 

 of these two, and were usually housed in what 

 was sometimes called 2,peristeron or peristero- 

 trophion, which might hold as many as five 

 thousand birds. 



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