[195] Ab incubatione etiam differentiae capi queunt: siquidem aliae semel, aliae bis terve aliae multoties incubant. Florentinus author est in Alexandria illa, quae ad Aegyptum spectat Gallinas quasdam Monosiras dici, ex quibus pugnaces oriantur Galli, quae bis, aut ter incubent, post absolutionem scilicet pullis ipsis subtractis, seorsumque enutritis. Ita contingit, ut una Gallina quadraginta aut etiam sexaginta, et plures unico incuba{n}tu excludat.

Differences may be deduced also from incubation: since some hens incubate once, others twice or thrice, and others many times. Florentinus is witness that in that Alexandria belonging to Egypt, there are certain hens called monosir, from which should hatch out fighting cocks, and which should incubate twice or thrice after they have been released, that is, after the chicks have been taken away and raised separately. Thus it happens that a hen alone hatches forty or sixty or even more chicks by a single sitting.

Differunt denique moribus et ingenio: nam praeter quam quod aliae domesticae, aliae sylvestres vocantur, inter ipsas etiam domesticas quaedam suapte natura adeo mites, et cicures sunt, ut sine humano consortio vitam transigere quodammodo nequeant: cuius rei oculatus testis sum. Siquidem ante aliquot annos in suburbano meo Gallinam alebam, quae praeterquam quod tota die sola per domum absque caeterarum comitatu vagaretur, vesperi ad quietem sese receptura nullibi nisi prope me inter libros, eosque maiores, etsi aliquoties abacta, recubare vellet. Aliae contra adeo ferae sunt, ut homines prorsus fugiant, tantum abest, ut earum familiaritate gaudeant. Aliae in propriam sobolem saeviunt, aliae ova, postquam edidere, absumunt.

Finally they differ in character and temper: for, apart from that some are called domestic and others wild, also among the domestic themselves, because of their nature itself, some are so meek and mild that somehow they are not able to live without human companionship: and I am eyewitness of this. For some years ago I was raising in my farm a hen who, in addition to the fact that she wondered the whole day alone through the house without the company of other hens, at night since she had to withdraw for resting didn’t want to lie down nowhere but near me among the books, and especially the greatest ones,  although a few times she had been driven away. On the contrary others are so wild that they quite avoid humans who are so far from enjoying their familiarity. Some rage against their own offspring, others eat eggs after laid them.

FORMA, ET DESCRIPTIO

Galli, et Gallinae in genere.

APPEARANCE AND DESCRIPTION

of the cock and the hen from a general point of view

Aristoteles[1], interprete Gaza Gallum Gallinaceum Alucone minorem esse prodidit: sed id olim doctissimi Petri Bellonii authoritate de maiori Alucone intelligendum esse monstravimus: alioqui revera Gallus Alucone multo maior est. Quod ad colorem attinet, is in toto gallinaceo genere ascribi non potest. Huic enim soli fidipedum[2] altilium colores diversi sunt. Nam aliis huiusce generis altilibus alius, atque alius color est, et in singulis vel color unus per totum corpus, vel varii: unde Solon a Cr<o>eso exquisitissime omnium ornamentorum genere splendente, sublimique in solio residente interrogatus, an pulchrius unquam spectaculum vidisset, respondisse fertur, teste Laërtio[3], Gallos Gallinaceos naturali nitore, et incredibili speciositate vestiri. Et Aelianus[4] in rationis expertibus naturam mari praerogativum honorem, atque praestantiam elargitam esse tradit: serpens, inquit, cristatus est: Gallus item formae excellentia illustratur. Verum etsi eiusmodi propositio ut plur{r}imum vera sit, et in Gallo nostro etiam locum habeat, universaliter tamen vera non est, siquidem, ut multis in locis in primo opere ostendimus in rapacium genere foeminae maribus, et praestantiores sunt, et pulchriores.

Accordingly to the translation of Gaza, Aristotle told that the rooster is smaller than the tawny owl: but formerly I have shown on the authority of the very learned Pierre Belon that we have to think about the Aluco maior - i.e. about a species greater than Aluco: however really the rooster is much greater than the Tawny owl. As to color, this cannot be fixed in the entire species of gallinaceous. For only this one, among fattening cloven feet fowls, has different colors. In fact some birds of this species show a color, the others another one and still another, and in each subject is present either just a color throughout the whole body, or various colors: hence they tell that Solon, asked by Croesus shining in a very refined way with every kind of ornaments and sat on a high throne, whether he had ever seen a more beautiful sight, as testified by Diogenes Laertius, he replied that the cocks are clothed by natural splendor and incredible beauty. And Aelian reports that, among animals devoid of reason, Nature granted the male a honorific privilege and a superiority: the snake, he says, is crested: likewise the cock is embellished by excellence of the appearance. But, although such a statement is most often true and has its place also in our rooster, it is not, however, universally true, since, as I have shown in many points of first volume, among the genus of birds of prey the females are both above the males and more beautiful.

Gallus cristam in capite gerit, eamque semper exertam, atque rubentem, dummodo integra sanitate fruatur, quare Theocritus[5] eum Φοινικόλοφον vocabat per periphrasim. Talem cristam solus, teste Aristotele[6], sibi peculiarem sortitus est: sic autem institutam, ut nec caro sit, nec a natura carnis omnino aliena. Spectatissimum insigne, inquit Plinius[7] elegantissime hanc cristam depingens, Aristotelemque periphrasticos explicans, Gallinaceis corporeum, serratum, nec carnem {id} <ita>[8] esse nec cartilaginem, nec callum iure dixerimus, verum peculiare.

On the head the rooster bears a comb which is always prominent and reddish as long as he enjoys excellent health, that’s why Theocritus by a circumlocution called him phoinikólophos - crimson combed. According to Aristotle, he alone has been blessed with such a comb, peculiar to him: for it is so composed that it is neither flesh nor completely unrelated to the flesh’s substance. Pliny, describing very properly this comb and explaining Aristotle by periphrases, says: - The most remarkable ornament has been given by Nature - to the roosters, fleshy, serrated; neither we can rightly say that it is flesh, nor cartilage nor a callosity, but something peculiar.

Unde apud Aristophanem[9] κυρβασίαν cristam peculiarem potius quam cassidem {solus} <solum> rectam, ut vulgaris interpretatio habet in versu{.}<:>

Ἐπὶ  τῆς κεφαλῆς, τὴν κυρβασίαν τῶν ὄρνιθων μόνος ὀρτήν

debemus interpretari: quoniam Upupa, Alauda cristata, similesque cristatae volucres alioqui cristam etiam erectam gerunt: quare recte Hesychius in hoc certe prudens κυρβαβίαν cristam Gallinaceam tra<n>stulit: puto autem κυρβασίαν legendum, typographique mendum esse. Facile enim fuit pro κυρβασίαν κυρβαβίαν legere. Politianus[10] cristam in Gallinaceo genere apicem vocavit. Aliqui barbare ruffas[11] appellant, et Sylvaticus nescio qua lingua ascil{l}i[12]: Graeci plerique λόφον; Aristophanes, ut dixi, κυρβασίαν, quanquam Varinus Cyrbasiam, <et Cyrbasiam>[13] quoque caput Gallinacei interpretetur. Hesichius κορυφήν ἀλέκτορος, id est verticem, vel cristam Galli. Hippocrates[14] Cyrbasiam vocat pileum acutum, ut videtur, alii tiaram erectam, qua soli Persarum Reges utebantur: unde alibi Suidas: Ὅ Περσικὸς ὄρνις, ὁ ἀλέκτωρ λέγεται διὰ τὴν λοφίαν[15],

Therefore in Aristophanes we must to interpret kyrbasían - tiara, pointed Persian turban - as a peculiar comb rather than only a pointed helmet, as the common interpretation shows in the verse:

Epì tês kephalês, tën kyrbasìan tøn órnithøn mónos ortën

On the head, the only bird having the tiara upright.

In fact the Hoopoe, the Crested Lark - Alauda arvensis - and similar crested birds somehow carry also an erected crest: therefore Hesychius, surely experienced in this field, correctly glossed kyrbabían into rooster’s comb: nevertheless I think that it must be read kyrbasían and that it is a typographical error. Since it would have been easy to read kyrbabían instead of kyrbasían. Angelo Poliziano, in chickens, called the comb as apex. Others roughly call the combs ruffas - reddish, and Matthaeus Sylvaticus in I don’t know what tongue ascili: most of the Greeks lóphos; Aristophanes, as I said, kyrbasía, although Varinus translates cyrbasia and also cybarsia as rooster’s head. Hesychius koryphën aléktoros, that is the top or the comb of the rooster. As it seems, Hippocrates calls cyrbasia the pointed pileum, others the upright tiara used only by Persian kings: whence elsewhere Suidas says: Hó Persikòs órnis, ho aléktør léghetai dià tën lophìan,