“Some even keep partridges, which, as Archelaus writes, conceive when they hear the voice of the male bird.  By reason of the natural abundance and the delicacy of their flesh, these last are not crammed like those domestic fowls I have described, but they are fattened by feeding in the ordinary way.

“And now, as I think that I have completed the first act of the drama of the barn yard, I am done.”

Of rabbits

XII.  At this point Appius returned and, after an exchange of questions and answers as to what had been said and done during his absence, he said:  “Here beginneth the second act of those industries which are wont to be practised at a villa, namely of those enclosures which are still known as leporaria from their ancient special designation.  Today a warren no longer means an acre or two in which hares are kept, but some times forests of vast extent in which troops of red deer and roe deer are enclosed.  Q. Fulvius Lippinus is said to have forty jugera enclosed in the neighbourhood of Tarquinii[192] where he keeps not only those animals I have named but wild sheep as well.  Parks of still larger extent are found in the territory of Statonia (in Etruria) and in certain other places:  indeed, in transalpine Gaul T. Pompeius has so great a game preserve that the enclosure is about four miles in extent.[193]

“It is the practice to keep in such enclosures not only the animals I have named, but also snail houses and bee hives and jars in which dormice are fed, but the care and the increase and the feeding of all these things are easy, except in the case of bees.  Who does not know that a leporarium should be enclosed with masonry walls which are at once smooth and high the one to keep out wild cats and badgers and other such beasts:  the other to prevent wolves from getting over.  Within should be coverts where the hares may lurk in the day time under bushes and grass, and trees with broad spreading branches to ward off the attacks of the eagle.

“Who does not know also that if he introduces only a few hares of both sexes in a short time the place will be full of them, for such is the fecundity of this quadruped that two pair are enough to stock an entire warren in a short time.  Often a mother who has just had her litter is found to be big with another:  indeed, Archelaus says that if you want to know how old a hare is you have only to count the number of openings in her belly, for without doubt there is one for every year of her life.

“It has recently become the practice to cram hares as well as poultry, and for this purpose they are taken out of the warren and shut up in small hutches where they are fattened.  There are three kinds of hares:  the first, our common Italian kind, which has short front legs and long hind legs, the upper part of the body dark coloured, the belly white, and long ears.  Some say that our hare conceives a second time while it is still big.  In transalpine