DE GALLINA RUSTICA.

THE WILD HEN

alia videri potest gallina rustica, cuius Columella et Varro meminerunt: alia vero perdix rustica, cuius Martialis[1], eadem (ni fallor) rusticula Plinio dicta[2].

One thing can seem the wild hen mentioned by Varro and Columella: but another thing is the rustica partridge - the Eurasian woodcock / the common snipe, about which Martial has spoken, the same (if I am not mistaken) said rusticula by Pliny.

¶ Gallinae quae vocantur trium generum sunt, villaticae, et rusticae, et Africanae, Varro[3] et Columella[4]. Rustica gallina non dissimilis villaticae, per aucupem decipitur: eaque plurima est in insula, quam nautae in Ligustico mari sitam producto nomine alitis Gallinariam vocitaverunt, Columella[5]. Gallinae rusticae (inquit Varro[6]) sunt in urbe rarae, nec fere mansuetae sine cavea videntur Romae, similes facie non his villaticis gallinis nostris, sed Africanis aspectu ac facie incontaminata. In ornatibus publicis solent poni cum psittacis, ac merulis albis, item aliis id genus rebus inusitatis. neque fere in villis ova ac pullos faciunt, sed in sylvis. Ab his gallinis dicitur insula Gallinaria appellata, quae est in mari Thusco secundum Italiam contra montes Ligusticos, vigintimillium[7] Albingaunium. alii ab his villaticis invectis a nautis ibi feris factis procreatis, Haec ille. Albingaunii quidem Liguriae oppidi Plinius etiam meminit[8]. est autem illi vicinum Intemelium oppidum, et sic apud Varronem legendum puto, (sic et Hermolaum legisse video,) non vigintimilium, ut Gallinaria insula sita intelligatur contra haec duo Liguriae oppida et Ligusticos montes. ¶ Sylvestres gallinae quae rusticae appellantur, in servitute non foetant: et ideo nihil de his educandis praecipimus, nisi ut cibus ad satietatem praebeatur, quo sint conviviorum epulis aptiores, Columella[9].

¶ Those called hens are of three kinds: courtyard, wild and African, Varro and Columella. The wild hen is not dissimilar from that of courtyard, she is trapped by the bird catcher: and she is very numerous in an island located in the Ligurian Sea which the sailors by lengthening the name of the bird called Gallinara, Columella. The wild hens (Varro says) are rare in the town, and in Rome they are not seen almost domesticated without being in a cage, in the aspect they are not similar to these our domestic hens, on the contrary to African ones for their build, and they have a pure aspect. During the public decorations it is custom to put them together with parrots and white blackbirds, as well as with other similar rarities. In farm they almost don't lay eggs neither raise chicks, but in wild places. It is said that the Gallinara island take the name from these hens, an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea near Italian coasts, in front of Ligurian mountains, Ventimiglia and Albenga. Others think that they come from these domestic hens brought by the sailors, that here they became wild and reproduced, these his words. Actually also Pliny quotes the Ligurian town of Albenga. Besides nearby is the city of Intemelium - Ventimiglia, and I think that in Varro we have to read so (I see that also Ermolao Barbaro has read so), not vigintimilium, so that it can be understood that the Gallinara island is facing these two Ligurian towns and Ligurian mountains. ¶ The wild hens, that are said rustic, in captivity don't reproduce: and therefore we didn't supply any instruction about how to raise them, if not to give them food in abundance so that they are more suitable for the foods of the banquets, Columella.

¶ Rusticae gallinae sunt agrestes (sylvestres potius) rostro longiore, quae per diminutionem rusticulae quoque appellantur, Ge. Alexandrinus[10]: quem video gallinaginem vel perdicem rusticam, (quam Galli beccassam a rostri longitudine, nostri Schnepff appellant, Plinius, ut videtur, rusticulam,) pro gallina rustica accepisse. Audio et hodie circa Bononiam in Italia Gallinam rusticam sive rusticellam nominari avem palustrem et lautam, haud scio an beccassam, an aliam quandam. Sed cum Columella gallinam rusticam villaticae non dissimilem faciat, beccassa vero longe dissimilior sit illi quam aliae quaedam sylvestres gallinae, inter alias quaerenda est quae nam tum forma tum magnitudine ad villaticam accedat proxime: qualis illa est cuius e Scotia missae imaginem paulo ante posuimus: vel illa (nisi eadem sit) quam in Anglia reperiri Turnerus scripsit, ut proxime recitavimus: in quo genere mas totus niger est, foemina varia instar perdicis, etc. Rursus cum Varro rusticas non villaticis gallinis sed Africanis aspectu similes scribat[11], ac facie incontaminata: Africanas autem non alias quam Meleagrides faciat, dubitare aliquis posset, tanquam alia Varronis quam Columellae gallina rustica esset. quod mihi quidem videtur. possunt enim rusticae villaticis reliquo corpore similes esse, facie vero dissimiles. ¶ Gallina apud nos rustica (inquit Turnerus) nusquam reperitur, si gallina illa quam morhennam vocant, (quam supra verbis ipsius descripsimus,) non sit: quamvis de eadem an attagen sit dubitamus.

¶ The wild hens haunt the fields (or better, the woods) and they have a rather long beak, and using the diminutive they also are said rusticulae, Giorgio Merula: it seems me that he exchanged the gallinago or rustica partridge - the Eurasian woodcock / the common snipe (which the French because of the length of the beak call bécasse, Schnepffs by our Swiss people, Pliny, as it seems, calls it rusticula) for the wild hen. I hear that still today in Italy in the outskirts of Bologna a marshy and abundant bird is said rustic hen or rusticella, I don't know if it is the woodcock or some other bird. But since Columella doesn't reckon the wild hen dissimilar from the courtyard one, then for him the woodcock would be very dissimilar from some other wild hens, among which in fact we have to wonder which is quite a lot approaching to the courtyard one: like is that one whose image sent from Scotland I placed a little before: or that (unless it is the same) William Turner wrote to be found in England, as I just said: in this genus the male is wholly black, the female is variegated as a partridge, etc. Furthermore, since Varro writes that the wild hens are similar in the appearance not to those of courtyard, but to African ones, and that they have a pure aspect: someone could doubt that it doesn't reckon the Africans different from the guinea-fowls, like if the wild hen of Varro were different from that of Columella. Which actually it seems to me. For the wild ones can be similar to the domestic ones as far as the rest of the body is concerned, but dissimilar as far as the appearance. ¶ Among us (William Turner says) the wild hen never is found unless it is that hen they call morhenna (which we described before with his own words): even if about this subject we doubt that it is a francolin.