Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 Part 14 (1/2)
AVERSA, a town and episcopal see of Campania, Italy, in the province of Caserta, 15 m. S.S.W. by rail from Caserta, and 12 m. N. by rail from Naples, from which there is also an electric tramway. Pop. (1901) 23,477.
Aversa was the first place in which the Normans settled, it being granted to them in 1027 for the help which they had given to Duke Sergius of Naples against Pandulf IV. of Capua. The Benedictine abbey of S. Lorenzo preserves a portal of the 11th century. There is also a large lunatic asylum, founded by Joachim Murat in 1813.
AVESNES, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondiss.e.m.e.nt in the department of Nord, on the Helpe, 28 m. S.E. of Valenciennes by rail. Pop.
(1906) 5076. The town is the seat of a sub-prefect, and has a tribunal of first instance, a chamber of commerce and a communal college. Its church of St Nicholas (16th century) has a tower 200 ft. high, with a fine chime of bells. The chief industry of the town is wool-spinning, and there is trade in wood. Avesnes was founded in the 11th century, and formed a counts.h.i.+p which in the 15th century pa.s.sed to the house of Burgundy and afterwards to that of Habsburg. In 1477 it was destroyed by Louis XI. By the treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) it came into the possession of the French, and was fortified by Vauban. It was captured by the Prussians in 1815.
AVEYRON, a department of southern France, bounded N. by Cantal, E. by Lozere and Card, S.W. by Tarn and W. by Tarn-et-Garonne and Lot. Area, 3386 sq. m. Pop. (1906) 377,299. It corresponds nearly to the old district of Rouergue, which gave its name to a counts.h.i.+p established early in the 9th century, and united with that of Toulouse towards the end of the 11th century. The earliest known natives of this region were the Celtic Rutheni, to whom the numerous megalithic monuments found in the department are attributed. Aveyron lies on the southern border of the central plateau of France. Its chief rivers are the Lot in the north, the Aveyron in the centre and the Tarn in the south, all tributaries of the Garonne. They flow from east to west, following the general slope of the department, and divide it into four zones. In the north-east, between the Lot and its tributary the Truyere, lies the lonely pastoral plateau of the Viadene, dominated by the volcanic mountains of Aubrac, which form the north-eastern limit of the department and include its highest summit (4760 ft.).
Entraygues, at the confluence of the Lot and the Truyere, is one of the many picturesque towns of the department. Between the Lot and the Aveyron is a belt of _causses_ or monotonous limestone table-lands, broken here and there by profound and beautiful gorges--a type of scenery characteristic of Aveyron. This zone is also watered by the Dourdou du Nord, a tributary of the Lot. The salient feature of the region between the Tarn and the Aveyron is the plateau of the Segala, bordered on the east by the heights of Levezou and Palanges and traversed from east to west by the deep valley of the Viaur, a tributary of the Aveyron. The country south of the Tarn is occupied in great part by the huge plateau of Larzac, which lies between the Causse Noir and the Causse St Affrique, the three forming the south-western termination of the Cevennes. On the Causse Noir is found the fantastic chaos of rocks and precipices known as Montpellier-le-Vieux, resembling the ruins of a huge city. The climate of Aveyron varies from extreme rigour in the mountains to mildness in the sheltered valleys; the south wind is sometimes of great violence. Wheat, rye and oats are the chief cereals cultivated, the soil of Aveyron being naturally poor. Other crops are potatoes, colza, hemp and flax. The mainstay of the agriculture of the department is the raising of live-stock, especially of cattle of the Aubrac breed, for which Laguiole is an important market. The wines of Entraygues, St Georges, Bouillac and Najac have some reputation; in the Segala chestnuts form an important element in the food of the peasants, and the walnut, cider-apple, mulberry (for the silk-worm industry), and plum are among the fruit trees grown. The production of Roquefort cheeses is prominent among the agricultural industries. They are made from the milk of the large flocks of the plateau of Larzac, and the choicest are ripened in the even temperature of the caves in the cliff which overhangs Roquefort.
The minerals found in the department include the coal of the basins of Aubin and Rodez as well as iron, zinc and lead. Quarries of various kinds of stone are also worked. The chief industrial centres are Decazeville, which has metallurgical works, and Millau, where leather-dressing and the manufacture of gloves have attained considerable importance. Wool-weaving and the manufacture of woollen goods, machinery, chemicals and bricks are among the other industries.
There are five arrondiss.e.m.e.nts, of which the chief towns are Rodez, capital of the department, Espalion, Millau, St Affrique and Villefranche, with 43 cantons and 304 communes. Rodez is the seat of a bishopric, the diocese of which comprises the department. Aveyron belongs to the 16th military region, and to the _academie_ or educational circ.u.mscription of Toulouse.
Its court of appeal is at Montpellier. The department is traversed by the lines both of the Orleans and Southern railways. The more important towns are Rodez, Millau, St Affrique, Villefranche-de-Rouergue and Decazeville.
The following are also of interest:--Sauveterre, founded in 1281, a striking example of the bastide (_q.v._) of that period; Conques, which has a remarkable abbey-church of the 11th century like St Sernin of Toulouse in plan and possessing a rich treasury of reliquaries, &c.; Espalion, where amongst other old buildings there are the remains of a feudal stronghold and a church of the Romanesque period; Najac, which has the ruins of a magnificent chateau of the 13th century; and Sylvanes, with a church of the 12th century, once attached to a Cistercian abbey.
AVEZZANO, a town of the Abruzzi, Italy, in the province of Aquila, 67 m. E.
of Rome by rail and 38 m. S. of Aquila by road. Pop. (1901) 9442. It has a fine and well-preserved castle, built in 1490 by Gentile Virginio Orsini; it is square, with round towers at the angles. Avezzano is on the main line from Rome to Castellammare Adriatico; a branch railway diverges to Roccasecca, on the line from Naples to Rome. The Lago Fucino lies 1 m. to the east.
AVIa.n.u.s, a Latin writer of fables, placed by some critics in the age of the Antonines, by others as late as the 6th century A.D. He appears to have lived at Rome and to have been a heathen. The 42 fables which bear his name are dedicated to a certain Theodosius, whose learning is spoken of in most flattering terms. He may possibly be Macrobius Theodosius, the author of the _Saturnalia_; some think he may be the emperor of that name. Nearly all the fables are to be found in Babrius, who was probably Avia.n.u.s's source of inspiration, but as Babrius wrote in Greek, and Avia.n.u.s speaks of having made an elegiac version from a rough Latin copy, probably a prose paraphrase, he was not indebted to the original. The language and metre are on the whole correct, in spite of deviations from cla.s.sical usage, chiefly in the management of the pentameter. The fables soon became popular as a school-book. Promythia and epimythia (introductions and morals) and paraphrases, and imitations were frequent, such as the _Novus Avia.n.u.s_ of Alexander Neckam (12th century).
EDITIONS.--Cannegieter (1731), Lachmann (1845), Frohner (1862), [v.03 p.0060] Bahrens in _Poetae Latini Minores_, Ellis (1887). See Muller, _De Phaedri et Aviani Fabulis_ (1875); Unrein, _De Aviani Aetate_ (1885); Hervieux, _Les Fabulistes latins_ (1894); _The Fables of Avian translated into Englyshe ... by William Caxton at Westmynstre_ (1483).
AVIARY (from Lat. _avis_, a bird), called by older writers ”volary,” a structure in which birds are kept in a state of captivity. While the habit of keeping birds in cages dates from a very remote period, it is probable that structures worthy of being termed aviaries were first used by the ancient Romans, chiefly for the process of fattening birds for the table.
In Varro's time, 116-127 B.C., aviaries or ”ornithones” (from Gr. [Greek: ornis, ornithos], bird) were common. These consisted of two kinds, those constructed for pleasure, in which were kept nightingales and other song-birds, and those used entirely for keeping and fattening birds for market or for the tables of their owners. Varro himself had an aviary for song-birds exclusively, while Lucullus combined the two cla.s.ses, keeping birds both for pleasure and as delicacies for his table. The keeping of birds for pleasure, however, was very rarely indulged in, while it was a common practice with poulterers and others to have large ornithones either in the city or at Sabinum for the fattening of thrushes and other birds for food.
Ornithones consisted merely of four high walls and a roof, and were lighted with a few very small windows, as the birds were considered to pine less if they could not see their free companions outside. Water was introduced by means of pipes, and conducted in narrow channels, and the birds were fed chiefly upon dried figs, carefully peeled, and chewed into a pulp by persons hired to perform this operation.
Turtle-doves were fattened in large numbers for the market on wheat and millet, the latter being moistened with sweet wine; but thrushes were chiefly in request, and Varro mentions one ornithon from which no less than five thousand of these birds were sold for the table in one season.
The habit of keeping birds in aviaries, as we understand the term, for the sake of the pleasure they afford their owners and for studying their habits is, however, of comparatively recent date. The beginning of geographical research in the 15th century brought with it the desire to keep and study at home some of the beautiful forms of bird-life which the explorers came across, and hence it became the custom to erect aviaries for the reception of these creatures. In the 16th century, in the early part of which the canary-bird was introduced into Europe, aviaries were not uncommon features of the gardens of the wealthy, and Bacon refers to them in his essay on gardening (1597). Elizabeth of Bohemia, the daughter of James I. of England, when a child, had an outdoor aviary at Coombe Abbey near Coventry, the back and roof of which were formed of natural rock, in which were kept birds of many species from many countries.
Within recent years the method of keeping birds in large aviaries has received considerable attention, and it is fully recognized that by so doing, not only do we derive great pleasure, but our knowledge of avian habits and mode of living can thereby be very considerably increased.
An aviary may be of almost any size, from the large cage known, on account of its shape, as the ”Crystal Palace aviary,” to a structure as large as a church; and the term is sometimes applied to the room of a house with the windows covered with wire-netting; but as a rule it is used for outdoor structures, composed princ.i.p.ally of wire-netting supported on a framework of either iron or woodwork. For quite hardy birds little more than this is necessary, providing that protection is given in the form of growing trees and shrubs, rock-work or rough wooden shelters. For many of the delicate species, however, which hail from tropical countries, warmth must be provided during the inclement months of the year, and thus a part at least of an aviary designed for these birds must be in the form of a wooden or brick house which can be shut up in cold weather and artificially warmed.
The ideal aviary, probably, is that which is constructed in two parts, viz.
a well-built house for the winter, opening out into a large wire enclosure for use in the summer months. The doors between the two portions may be of wood or glazed. The part intended as the winter home of the birds is best built in brick or stone, as these materials are practically vermin-proof and the temperature in such a building is less variable than that in a thin wooden structure. The floor should be of concrete or brick, and the house should be fitted with an efficient heating apparatus from which the heat is distributed by means of hot-water pipes. Any arrangement which would permit the escape into the aviary of smoke or noxious fumes is to be strongly condemned. Such a house must be well lighted, preferably by means of skylights; but it is a mistake to have the whole roof glazed, at least half of it should be of wood, covered with slates or tiles. Perches consisting of branches of trees with the bark adhering should be fixed up, and, if small birds are to be kept, bundles of bushy twigs should be securely fixed up in corners under the roofs.
The outer part, which will princ.i.p.ally be used during the summer, though it will do most birds good to be let out for a few hours on mild winter days also, should be as large as possible, and constructed entirely of wire-netting stretched on a framework of wood or iron. If the latter material is selected, stout gas-piping is both stronger and more easily fitted together than solid iron rods.
If the framework be of wood, this should be creosoted, preferably under pressure, or painted with three coats of good lead paint, the latter preservative also being used if iron is the material selected.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1.]
The wire-netting used may be of almost any sized mesh, according to the sized birds to be kept, but as a general rule the smallest mesh, such as half or five-eighths of an inch, should be used, as it is practically vermin-proof, and allows of birds of any size being kept. Wire-netting for aviaries should be of the best quality, and well galvanized. The new interlinked type is less durable than the old mesh type, though perhaps it looks somewhat neater when fixed.
Provision must be made for the entire exclusion of such vermin as rats, stoats and weasels, which, if they were to gain access, would commit great havoc amongst the birds. The simplest and most effectual method of doing this is by sinking the wire-netting some 2 ft. into the ground all round the aviary, and then turning it outwards for a distance of another foot as shown in the annexed cut (fig. 1).
The outer part of the aviary should be turfed and planted with evergreen and deciduous shrubs, and be provided with some means of supplying an abundance of pure water for the birds to drink and bathe in; a gravel path should not be forgotten.
Perhaps the most useful type of aviary is that built as above described, but with several compartments, and a pa.s.sage at the back by which any compartment may be visited without the necessity of pa.s.sing through and disturbing the birds in other compartments. Fig. 2 represents a ground plan of an aviary of this type divided into four compartments, each with an inner house 10 ft. square, and an outer flight of double that area. The outer flights are intended to be turfed, and planted with shrubs, and the gravel path has a glazed roof above it by which it is kept dry in wet weather. Shallow water-basins are shown, which should be supplied by means of an underground pipe and a c.o.c.k which can be turned on from outside the aviary; and they must be connected with a properly laid drain by means of a waste plug and an overflow pipe.