to young chickens.  They should be allowed to run in the sun and to scratch in a dung heap, which serves to develop them.  This rule applies not only to young chickens but also to the entire [Greek:  ornithoboskeion], and should be practised all summer and even in winter on mild and sunny days.  A net should be stretched over the chicken yard to keep the fowls themselves from flying out and to protect them from hawks and other birds of prey.  Fowls should be protected from heat as well as cold, for both are harmful to them.  When the chicks have got their feathers it is best to accustom them to follow one or two hens, leaving the other hens free to go to laying, in which occupation they are more useful than in rearing chicks.

“A hen should be set after the new moon, for those which begin earlier seldom hatch many chicks.

“They hatch usually in twenty days.

“And now since I have discussed the dunghill fowl at some length, I will make up to you by brevity with respect to the other kinds of fowls.

“Jungle fowl are rarely seen at Rome, and then usually in cages.  They resemble guinea chickens more than dunghill fowls.  When perfect in form and appearance they are often carried in the public processions with parrots and white blackbirds and other such rarities.  They do not usually lay or raise their chickens on a farm, but in the forests.  The island of Gallinaria, which lies in the Tuscan sea off the coast of Italy, opposite the Ligurian mountains (and the towns of Intermelii and Alba Ingannua) derives its name from them, though some maintain that the name comes from dunghill fowl which were carried to that island by sailors and have there run wild.  Guinea fowl (gallinae africanae) are large, mottled and have their humps in their backs.  The Greeks call them [Greek:  meleagris].[183] They are the last fowls which the culinary art has introduced to our dining tables, on account of their gamy flavour.[184] By reason of their rarity they sell for a high price.

“Of the three kinds of fowls, the ordinary dunghill fowl is used chiefly for cramming.  For this purpose they are shut up in a small confined and darkened coop, because both exercise and light are enemies of fat.  Any large chickens may be selected for this operation, not necessarily of that breed which the peasants call Melica incorrectly, for as the ancients said Thelis when they meant Thetis, so the country people still say Melica for Medica.  This name was given at first to the fowls which were imported from Medea on account of their great size and then to all of that breed, but now the name is given indiscriminately to all large fowls by reason of their general resemblance.  After the feathers have been pulled from their tails and wings they are crammed with balls of barley paste, with which may be mixed darnel meal, or flax seed soaked in soft water.  They are fed twice a day but care must be taken to see that the last meal is digested before another is put before them.  After they have been fed and their heads have been cleaned of mites, they are shut up again.  This process is kept up for twenty-five days, when they will be fat.