Gallīna
A fowl; a chicken. Of the different species of domestic fowls, the most important were
gallinae, which were divided into three classes:
(a) gallinae
villaticae, the common chicken;
(b) gallinae Africanae or
Numidicae, the same probably with the
μελεαγρίδες of the Greeks; and
(c) gallinae rusticae. The
last were found in great abundance in the Insula Gallinaria, but it is so difficult to
determine from the descriptions transmitted to us what they really were, that it is uncertain
whether they ought to be regarded as pheasants, as redlegged partridges, as wood-grouse, or as
some species of game different from any of these. The
Africanae, always scarce
and dear, were treated almost exactly in the same manner as peacocks, and never became of
importance to the farmer. The
rusticae are little spoken of except as
objects of curiosity, and Columella declares that they would not breed in
confinement.
Among the breeds celebrated for fighting were the Tanagrian, the Rhodian, and the
Chalcidian; but these were not the most profitable for the market. The points of a good
barn-yard fowl are minutely described by Varro, Columella, and Palladius. Some were permitted
to roam about (
vagae) during the day, and pick up what they could, but
the greater number were constantly shut up (
clausae) in a poultry-yard
(
gallinarium,
ὀρνιθοβοσκεῖον), which
was an enclosed court (
saeptum) with a warm aspect, strewed with sand or
ashes wherein they might burrow, and covered over with a net. It contained hen-houses (
caveae), to which they retired at night and roosted upon poles stretched
across (
perticae) for their convenience, nests (
cubilia) for the laying hens being constructed along the walls. The whole establishment
was under the control of a poultryman (
aviarius custos or
curator gallinarius).
Chickens, when fattened for sale, were shut up in dark, narrow cribs, light and motion being
unfavourable to the process; or each bird was swung separately in a basket, with a small hole
at each end, one for the head, the other for the rump, and bedded upon the softest hay or
chaff, but so cramped in space that it could not turn round. In this state it was crammed with
wheat, linseed, barley-meal kneaded with water into small lumps (
turundae), and other farinaceous food, the operation requiring from twenty to
twenty-five days (Varr. iii. 9; Colum. viii. 2, etc., 12;
Plin.
H. N. x. 46 foll.; Pallad. i. 27, 29).
