[192] EXERCITATIO QUINTA.
De gallinae uteri parte exteriore.

5th exercise
The external part of the hen's uterus

FABRICIUS descriptionem uteri, post ovarium, prosequitur: adeoque inverso ordine, partis superioris, productionisve uteri explicationem, ipsius uteri tractationi praemittit. Nimis etiam praecise sive determinate tres illi spiras assignat, harumque certas positiones constituit; quae tamen incertae sunt. Infundibuli quoque ibidem definitionem praepostere repetit.

After the ovary, Fabrizi* continues the description of the uterus and insomuch in inverse order by placing the explanation of the upper or lengthened part of the uterus before the treatment of the uterus. Moreover in an excessively precise or categorical way he assigns it three coils and establishes their exact positions, which nevertheless are uncertain. Still here he repeats in a confused way the definition of infundibulum.

Liceat igitur mihi, hic meam uteri gallinae observationem et historiam (quam, secundum methodum anatomicam, commodiorem existimo) proponere, et ab exterioribus partibus introrsum (contra quam fecit Aquapendens) procedere.

Therefore I would beg to be allowed to expose here my observation and description of the hen's uterus (according to the anatomical method, which I think more proper), and to proceed from the external parts toward inside (contrarily than Fabrizi did).

In deplumata gallina reperire est podicem, non (ut in caeteris animalibus) in orbem contractum, sed depresso orificio transversim scissum, et duobus labellis conniventem; quorum superius, alterum inferius intra se collectum tegit et occulit. Superius istud labrum, seu velabrum, a radice uropygii oritur; et [193] ut palpebra superior oculum, sic hoc tria pudendi orificia contegit (nempe ani, uteri, et ureterum); quae sub hoc velabro, tanquam praeputio, retracta latent: quemadmodum in mulieris pudendo, intra cunni labra et nymphas, vulvae, urinaeque foramina absconduntur. Adeo ut, citra sectionem, aut violentiorem velabri illius in gallina retractionem, nec faecum ab alvo, nec urinae ex ureteribus, neque ovi ab utero exitus appareat. Ac propterea duo illa excrementa (urina nempe et stercus) simul, tanquam e communi cloaca, sursum elevato velabro et nudato foramine, egeruntur. Similiter in coitu, gallina supervenienti gallo vulvam detegit et accommodat: ut observavit Fabricius in gallina Indica gallum appetente. Vidi egomet struthionem foeminam, cum custos dorsum eius levi manu attrectaret quo libidinem accenderet, sese humi prosternere, velabrum attollere, vulvamque ostendere et exporrigere; quam intuitus mas illico oestro venereo percitus conscendit; alteroque pede in terram defixo, altero dorsum succubantis premente, penem ingentem vibrans (linguam bubulam crederes) subagitavit, multo cum utriusque murmure et strepitu, capitibus saepe protensis et reductis, aliisque gaudii indiciis. Neque hoc avibus proprium est, sed etiam aliis animalibus commune, quae caudam submovendo, et genitalia exporrigendo, marium initui sese adaptant. Eundemque fere usum, quem velabrum in gallina, in aliis cauda praestat; qua nisi semota vel elevata, nec excrementa prodire, nec mares foeminas inire queant.

In a plucked hen it is possible to find the cloacal orifice not contracted in a circular way (as in the other animals) but transversally fissured by a deep-set orifice and closing with two small lips, the superior one covering and hiding the inferior one rolled up inside itself. Such upper lip or awning, comes out from the root of the uropygial gland*, and like the superior eyelid covers the eye, so this lip covers three orifices of the pudenda (that is, of anus, uterus and ureters) which, hidden, are sheltered under this awning as being a prepuce. So as in the pudenda of the woman, the openings of vulva and urine are hidden between the labia maiora and minora. So that, if in the hen we don't have recourse to a dissection or to a rather violent retraction of that awning, the outflow doesn't appear neither of the faeces of the digestive apparatus, nor of the urine from the ureters, nor of the egg from the uterus. Since those two excrements (that is, urine and dung) are sent forth together, as from a cloaca in common, after having lifted the awning and having bared the orifice. In the same manner during the mating the hen uncovers and adjusts the vulva for the cock which is about to climb above her, as Fabrizi observed in a turkey hen desirous for the male. I myself have seen a female ostrich, while the keeper with delicate hand caressed her back to stimulate the lust, which stretched to earth, lifted the awning and showed and spread the vulva. The male, having seen her, immediately excited by the sexual desire, climbed above her, and after having thrust a leg in the earth and pressing with the other the back of her who was under, making a big penis to vibrate (you would believe it the tongue of an ox) moved it back and forth, with quite a lot of noise and din of both birds, with the heads often pushed back and forth, and other signs of pleasure. This is not only of pertinence of the birds, but it is also common to other animals, which, just moving the tail and making the genitals to stick out, they prepare themselves to the joining with the male. And in other animals the tail almost carries out the same task of the awning in the hen. If the tail has not been moved away or lifted, the excrements would not be able to go out, neither the males could mate with the females.

In cervis, damis, et dorcade (ceu animalibus castioribus), tale pudicitiae tutamen, et velabrum cuticulare, vulvam meatumque urinae in foemina operit; quod attolli necesse est, priusquam mas penem immittere possit.

In deer, fallow deer and gazelle (as in more chaste animals) such a protection of the modesty and an awning of skin covers in the female the vulva and the urinary meatus, and it has to be lifted before the male can introduce the penis.

In caudatis etiam animalibus, sine caudae sublevatione, partus non contingit: imo vero et mulierum quoque partus, coccygem ungendo, eumque manu retrudendo obstetrices facilitant.

Besides in the animals endowed with tail the delivery doesn't happen without the lifting of the tail. Moreover, in truth, the midwives facilitate also the deliveries of the women by greasing the coccygeal region and pushing back the coccyx with the hand.

[194] Chirurgus quidam, vir probus, mihique familiaris, ex India orientali redux, bona fide mihi narravit, in insulae Borneae locis a mari remotioribus et montosis, nasci hodie genus quoddam hominum caudatum[1] (uti olim alibi accidisse apud Pausaniam legimus), e quibus aegre captam virginem (sunt enim sylvicolae) ipse vidit, cum cauda carnosa, crassa, spithamae longitudine intra clunes reflexa, qua anum et pudenda operiebat. Usque adeo velari ea loca natura voluit[2].

A surgeon, a reliable person and my friend, back from East Indies, related me in all sincerity that in areas of Borneo Island, rather far from sea and mountainous, today a type of human beings is born endowed with tail (as we read in Pausanias* that one time it happened somewhere), he himself saw a virgin captured with difficulty by these men (in fact they live in the woods), and she was endowed with a fleshy tail, big, long a span, twisted among the buttocks, with which she covered the anus and the pudenda. Until this point the nature wanted these areas to be hidden.

Velabri istius fabrica, in gallina, est similis superioris palpebrae: ex cute nempe, membrana carnosa et musculosa texitur, cum fibris a circumferentia undique ad centrum ductis: eiusque interior superficies, ut palpebrae et praeputii, mollis est. Habet etiam in extremitate sui tarsum[3] semicircularem, ad modum palpebrae: atque insuper, inter cutem et membranam carnosam, interstitium cartilaginosum, ab uropygii radice cum tarso falcato ad angulos rectos copulatum (ut vespertiliones intra membraneas alas quasi latitantem exiguam caudam habent): qua fabrica, ceu cauda, velabrum hoc dicta pudendi foramina facilius detegere et operire possit.

In the hen the structure of this awning is similar to the superior eyelid: that is, it is a fleshy and muscular membrane which is constituted by skin together with fibres that from the whole circumference are turned to the centre, and its inner surface is soft as that of the eyelid and the prepuce. At its extremity it also has a semicircular tarsus as the eyelid has, and on the upper part, between the skin and the fleshy membrane, a cartilaginous interstice, connected with square corners by the root of the uropygial gland with the sickle shaped tarsus (in the same manner the bats have, inside the membranous wings, like a half hidden small appendix). So that with this structure or extremity, this awning can uncover and open more easily the aforesaid openings of the pudenda.

Sublato itaque, et rescisso hoc velabro, foramina aliquot apparent; quorum alia conspicua, alia obscura sunt. Evidentiora quidem sunt ani, et vulvae; exitus nempe excrementi, et introitus in uterum. Obscura autem, tum illud, per quod urina e renibus profluit; tum exiguum illud a Fabricio inventum, in quod gallus, ait ille, semen suum immittit. Quod tamen foramen apud Aldrovandum Antonius Ulmus, diligens dissector, non agnovit; nec quisquam alius, quod sciam, praeter Fabricium.

Insofar, after having lifted and removed with a cut this awning, some openings appear, some of which are visible, other difficult to be identified. The most evident are that of anus and vulva, that is, the out coming of the faeces and the entry to the uterus. Those difficult to be seen are both that through which the urine flows from the kidneys, and that small one discovered by Fabrizi who says: «In which the cock introduces its semen.» Nevertheless, in the treatise of Aldrovandi*, Marco Antonio Olmo*, careful dissector, didn't identify such opening, nor somebody else identified it, as far as I know, except Fabrizi.

Foramina haec omnia adeo sibi invicem vicina sunt, ut fere in unam cavitatem concurrere videantur; quam (utpote stercori et urinae communem) cloacam liceat appellare: quod in ea, una cum alvi faecibus, urina e renibus descendens commisceatur, [195] donec simul egerantur. Per hanc quoque ovum in partu transiens sibi viam parat.

All these openings are so close to each other that they almost seem going to end in only one cavity which could be called cloaca (being in common to dung and urine), since in it, with the faeces of the bowel, would mix the urine coming down from the kidneys, until when they are sent forth together. Also the egg, passing through this cloaca when laid, prepares its way.

Huius cavitatis ea fabrica est, ac si in vesicam utrumque excrementum descenderet, et natura urina pro clystere naturali abuteretur. Ideoque crassior paulo et rugosior, quam intestinum, est: atque in egestione, et coitu, foras provolvitur (sublato, ut dixi, velabro, quod ipsam tegit), et, tanquam interior intestini pars prolapsa, prominet: eodemque tempore omnia foramina distincte apparent, quae statim in eius reductione, quasi in unam bursam collecta, reconduntur.

Such is the structure of this cavity, that, even if both the excrements go down into the bladder, the nature uses the urine as being a natural clyster. Hence it is a little bit more thick and wrinkled in comparison with the bowel; in the evacuation and during the coition it slips out (the awning being lifted, as I said, covering it), and becomes prominent as being an inner part of the bowel that slipped out. In the same moment all the openings clearly appear, which, while are reducing, immediately hide themselves as being gathered in only one purse.

Foramina magis conspicua (ani scilicet et vulvae) contrarium situm in pennatis omnibus, atque in aliis animalibus obtinent. In his enim pudendum sive genitale foemineum parte anteriore locatur, inter intestinum rectum et vesicam: in illis autem excrementi exitus partem anteriorem possidet, atque inter ipsum et uropygium introitus in matricem deprehenditur.

The greater openings (that is, of anus and uterus) in all the feathered animals have an opposite location in comparison with the other animals. In fact in these ones the pudenda or female genital organ is anteriorly located, between the rectum and the urinary bladder; on the contrary in those - in birds - the discharge of the excrements occupies the anterior part and the access to the uterus is visible between this and the uropygial gland.

Foramen autem, in quod Fabricius putat gallum semen suum immittere, inter hoc vulvae ostium et uropygium cernitur. Ego vero talem eius usum non agnosco: In pullis enim iuvenculis vix reperitur; in adultis autem promiscue inest, tam gallo, quam gallina[4]. Accedit, quod foramen valde exiguum et obscurum sit, ut tantae utilitatis non appareat: vix enim aciculam aut setam admittit, et in cavitatem caecam terminatur: neque unquam potui humorem seminalem in ea reperire; quanquam Fabricius asserit semen ibidem, tanquam in bursa, per annum integrum reservari, omniaque interea ova inde foecundari; ut postea dicetur.

The opening, in which Fabrizi believes the cock is introducing its semen, is visible between this opening of the uterus and the uropygial gland. However I don't agree about this use of it. In fact in the rather young chicks it is hardly found, in those adults it is present without distinction both in cock and hen. In addition, the opening is very small and hardly observable, so that it not seems of excessive utility: in fact it hardly allows to pass a small needle or a bristle, and it finishes in a blind cavity, neither ever I have been able to find some seminal liquid, even if Fabrizi affirms that just there the semen is stored for a whole year as in a purse, and that in the meantime all the eggs are fertilized by it, as later it will be said.

Insunt omnibus avibus, serpentibus, quadrupedibus oviparis, atque etiam piscibus (ut facile in cyprino videre est) renes et ureteres, per quos urina profluat: quod Aristotelem, aliosque hactenus philosophos latuit. In avibus autem, et serpentibus, quibus fungosi pulmones sunt, parva cernitur urinae copia; [196] quod parum admodum et pitissando[5] bibant; quare vesica urinaria iis non est opus; sed lotium, ut diximus, in communem alvum sive cloacam, cum sicco excremento deponunt. In cyprino tamen, aliisque quibusdam piscibus, vesicam quoque urinariam deprehendi.

In all birds, snakes, oviparous quadrupeds and also in fishes (as it is easy to see in the carp) the kidneys and the ureters are present, through which the urine can flow out, which till now has been unknown to Aristotle and the other naturalists. In the birds and in the snakes, in which there are spongy lungs, a scarce quantity of urine is seen, since they drink very little and sipping, hence they don't need the urinary bladder, but, as I said, they deposit the urine in the common intestine, or cloaca, together with the dry excrements. Nevertheless in the carp and in some other fishes I have also found an urinary bladder.

In gallina, ureteres a renibus (qui ampli longique in dorsi cavitate locantur) utrinque descendunt, et in communem cavitatem sive cloacam desinunt. Exitus autem eorum adeo obscurus est, et in cavitatis ipsius limine delitescens, ut forinsecus eum invenire, et stilum vel tenuissimum immittere, plane sit impossibile. Neque equidem mirum; quippe in omnibus, vel maximis animalibus, insertio ureterum prope vesicae collum adeo anfractuosa et obscura est, ut (licet urina, et calculi aliquando per eos in vesicam delabantur) ne flatus quidem per easdem vias regredi, aut urina vi pelli queat. Contra autem, tum in avibus, tum in caeteris etiam animalibus, si stilus vel seta deorsum per ureteres impellatur, facile in communem cavitatem aut vesicam via aperitur.

In the hen the ureters go down at both sides from the kidneys (which, wide and long, are placed in a cavity of the back), and they go to end in a common cavity or cloaca. Their point of exit is so uncertain and hidden in correspondence of the entry in the cavity itself, that to succeed in finding it from outside and to introduce in it a stylus, even if very small, it is quite impossible. We don't have indeed to marvel, since in all animals, also those very big, the outflow of the ureters in proximity of the neck of the bladder is still so tangled and uncertain that (even if the urine and sometimes the calculi go down in the bladder through them) it is not possible that through these same ways the air can go up or the urine can be pushed with force. On the contrary, both in birds and also in the other animals, if a stylus or a bristle is pushed down through the ureters, an access to the common cavity or to the bladder is easily opening.

In struthione haec omnia luculenter patent: in quo, praeter communis cavitatis orificium exterius, quod velabrum tegebat; aliud, intra anum, orificium rotundum, constrictum, et quasi sphinctere clausum reperi. Verum, his omissis, quod ad propositum nostrum spectat agamus.

In the ostrich all these things are very well visible, in which, besides the external orifice of the common cavity - the cloaca, which the awning was hiding, I found inside the anus - the cloacal orifice - another round orifice, contracted and closed as by a sphincter. In truth, leaving aside these things, let us devote ourselves to what is concerning our topic to be treated.

Orificium uteri sive vulvae, nimirum transitus e communi cavitate in uterum gallinae, est veluti protuberantia quaedam mollis, laxa, rugosa, atque orbicularis; tanquam praeputii extremitas clausa, aut vulvae interioris cuiusdam tunicae prolapsus. Locatur autem, ut dixi, inter foramen ani et uropygium; atque aliquantulum sinistrorsum vergit; idque factum putat Ulisses Aldrovandus, ad commodiorem coitum, et faciliorem membri genitalis galli incursum.[6] Ego vero saepius observavi, gallinam, [197] prout gallus eam a dextra aut sinistra parte conscenderit, eo versus podicem suum indifferenter flectere. In gallo penem non invenio, quem nec Fabricius reperire potuit: cum tamen in ansere atque anate menifestissime appareat. Eius vero loco, in gallo orificium reperio (haud secus quam in gallina), minus tamen illud et angustius; quemadmodum etiam in cygno, ansere, et anate idem conspicitur: anseris autem et anatis mentula[7], dum coeunt, ab hoc orificio protenditur.

The orifice of the uterus, or of the vulva, that is, the passage from the common cavity - the cloaca - to the uterus of the hen, is like a soft protuberance, relaxed, wrinkled and round, closed as being the extremity of the prepuce or a prolapse of a tunic of the inner vulva. In fact it is located, as I said, between the anal orifice and the uropygial gland, and is turned a little bit leftward. And Ulisse Aldrovandi thinks that this happens «for a more comfortable coition and an easier introduction of the genital member of the cock.» To say the truth, I have seen many times that the hen, depending on whether the rooster climbed on her, from right or from left side, she indifferently flexed in such direction her cloacal orifice. In the cock I don't find a penis*, which neither Fabrizi has been able to find, while nevertheless in the goose and in the duck it is very visible. Instead of it, in the cock I find an orifice (as in the hen), nevertheless smaller and narrower, so as it is also seen in swan, goose and duck; but the penis of goose and duck sticks out from this orifice while they are mating.

In nigra anate, penem tantae longitudinis vidi, ut absoluto coitu, humi pendentem insequens gallina, avide eum (lumbricum, credo, arbitrata) mordicaret, faceretque illius citius solito retractionem.

In a black duck I have seen a penis so long that, the coition being finished, a hen pursued it while hanging toward the ground, nipped it greedily (I believe she was convinced that it was a worm) and she determined its retraction more quickly than usual.

In struthione mare, intra hoc pudendi orificium, tanquam in equi praeputio, praegrandem glandem et nervum rubicundum, forma et magnitudine linguae cervinae, aut bubulae minoris, reperi; quem in coitu rigidum et aliquantulum aduncum vibrare saepius vidi, et in foeminae vulvam immissum, sine subagitatione ulla, diutius tenere; perinde ac si clavo aliquo ambo in coitu colligati essent: dum interea temporis capitis collique gesticulationibus, ut diximus, mire perstreperent, quasi hymenaeo annuissent, ingentemque voluptatis sensum exprimerent.

In a male ostrich I have found inside this cloacal orifice, as well as inside the prepuce of the horse, a very big glans and a red penis with the shape and the size of a tongue of deer or small ox, and rather often during the coition I have seen it vibrating rigid and a little bit hooked, and after having been introduced in the vulva of the female it remained such for a rather long time and without any movement, as if both during the coition were joined by some nail, while in the meantime with movements of head and neck, as I said, they made a din in an unusual manner, as they almost agreed to the wedding and manifested a big feeling of voluptuousness.

Legi apud doctorem Du Val medicum doctissimum Rothomagensem, hermaphroditum quendam chirurgis atque obstetricibus demandatum fuisse, ut, num vir, an mulier esset, decernerent. Illi, inspectis genitalibus, mulierem esse iudicabant: iussumque propterea est, ut sequioris sexus vestitu uteretur. Interea tamen mulierum amores sectari, virique officium praestare accusabatur. Hic tandem repertus est, erumpente ex latenti praeputio (tanquam ex locis muliebribus) mentula, viri munus obiisse.

I have read in a work - Des hermaphrodits, 1612 - of Doctor Jacques Duval*, a very learned physician of Rouen, that a hermaphrodite was entrusted to surgeons and obstetricians so that they established if he was a man or a woman. After having looked at genitals, they thought that he was a woman, hence they ordered that she used the dress of the weaker sex. However in the meantime she was accused of running after the loves of the women and to perform the role of male. At the end they discovered that he, while the penis jumped out of a hidden prepuce (as if coming from feminine genitals), had performed the role of male.

Vidi ipsemet aliquando viri cuiusdam penem, introrsum adeo reductum, praeterquam cum tentigine provocaretur, ut nihil, in [198] corrugato praeputio supra scrotum, praeter summum glandis apicem promineret.

Once I myself have seen the penis of a man so internally  withdrawn, unless excited by lust, that in the wrinkled prepuce above the scrotum nothing was sticking out except the top of the apex of the glans.

In equo aliisque quibusdam animalibus, ingens istius membri longitudo ex occulto porrigitur. In Talpa etiam animali exiguo, inter cutem et abdominis musculos magna penis retractio conspicitur: eiusque pariter foeminae longior et profundior vulva obtigit.

In the horse and in some other animals a marked length of this member stretches out from a hiding place. Also in the mole, a small animal, is seen a marked retraction of the penis between the skin and the muscles of the abdomen, and likewise a rather long and deep vulva of its female is hiding.

Gallo, cui penis deest, idem, credo, contigit, quod avibus minoribus, quae celeriter et affrictu duntaxat coitum perficiunt. Iunctis nempe saepius utrinque galli et gallinae pudendorum orificiis (quae foras eversa protuberant, rigent, glandisque in morem tenduntur; praecipue vero maris, quod foeminam exterius duntaxat lambit, non autem, ut arbitror, ingreditur), ceu repetitis suaviis, non uno longiore initu, coitum celebrant.

I believe that to the cock, which is without penis, the same thing happens that is happening to the smaller birds, which quickly do the coition and only by rubbing. The cocks and the hens for the more celebrate the coition just after both the parts connected the cloacal orifices (which, made to stick out, are swelling, become hard and stretch as the glans; in truth above all of the male, since he brushes the female only outside, but, as I think, he doesn't penetrate her), or with repeated kisses, not with only one rather prolonged coition.

In equorum, canum, felium, aliorumque coitu, foemina mari penem obtendenti pudendum rigidum tensumque accommodat. Quod etiam in avibus contingit, quae cicures manum sibi imponi sinunt, venereque turgentes orificium hoc protendunt; idemque renitens ac duriusculum reperies, si digitum admoveris.

In the coition of horses, dogs, cats and other animals, the female offers the hard and taut external genitals to the male which stretches out the penis. The same also happens in birds, and the females of the tamed ones allow that a hand is put on them, and full of sexual desire they make to stick out this orifice, and if you will apply a finger on it you will find it resistant and rather hard.

Imo vero usque adeo libidinosae interdum aves sunt, ut, si dorsum earum manu solum leviter tangas, statim procumbant, orificium uterinum nudent et exporrigant: quod si blande digito demulseris, vago murmure, alarumque gesticulatione, gratam veneris dulcedinem exprimunt. Quinetiam foemellas ova inde concipere, et Aristoteles[8] auctor est, et ipsemet in turdo, merula, aliisque, expertus sum: idque olim primum fortuito, meoque damno, didici.

Moreover, to say the truth, sometimes the birds are libidinous to such a point that, if with the hand only gently you touch their back, they immediately crouch, bare the uterine orifice and protrude it, and if you gently will caress it with a finger, they express an agreeable sexual pleasure with a slight murmur and with a gesticulation of the wings. Actually, also Aristotle writes that for this reason the females conceive the eggs, and I myself have found this in the thrush, in the blackbird and in other birds, and formerly I have learned this by chance for the first time and to my damage.

Psittacum nempe insignem, docteque garrulum, uxor mea diu in deliciis habuit. Erat is adeo familiaris, ut quocunque vellet libere per aedes vagaretur; absentem dominam inquireret; [199] inventae hilari voce ablandiretur; vocanti etiam responderet; advolaret; vestemque rostro pedibusque vicissim comprehendens, ad summum humerum scanderet; indeque per brachium descendens, super manum semper se sisteret: iussus loqui aut cantare, etiam noctu et in tenebris, morem gessit. Saepe ludibundus et lascivus sedentis gremium adibat; ubi caput sibi attrectari, dorsumque demulceri gestiebat; quassatisque alis, et blando strepitu summam animi sui laetitiam testabatur. Ego haec omnia ab usitata pridem familiaritate et obsequio proficisci interpretabar: marem enim sum arbitratus, ob loquelae et cantus eximiam praestantiam.

In fact my wife for long time among the delicious things possessed an extraordinary parrot and cleverly loquacious. It was domestic to such a point to freely turn through the rooms according to its will, to look for the absent  lady of the house, to blandish her with cheerful voice when had found her, to answer to her who called it, to fly towards her, and alternatively grabbing the dress with the beak and with the legs, it climbed up to the summit of the shoulder, and going down from here through the arm, it always placed itself above the hand, and, ordering it to speak or to sing, it got into the habit to do this also at night and in the dark. Often  playful and happy, it went to womb of whom was sitting, where it yearned that its head was scratched and the back caressed, and by shaking the wings and with a light din it showed the great joy of its soul. I interpreted that all these things originated from the familiarity acquired from a long time and from surrendering. In fact I judged it to be a male because of the exceptional performances of language and song.

Quippe, inter aves, foemellae raro {cantillare} <cantilare>, aut voce invicem provocare solent: sed mares solum suavi vocis modulamine foemellas delinire, et ad veneris obsequium pellicere animadvertimus. Ideoque Aristoteles ait[9] Perdices, si adversae maribus steterint, ventusque inde afflet ubi mares stant, concipiunt et maritantur. Plerumque etiam voce marium utero ingravescunt, si gestiunt ac libidine turgent. Volatu quoque superne marium effici idem potest; videlicet dum mas ipse in foeminam foetificum spiritum demittit. Quod verno praesertim tempore contigit: unde poeta[10].

In fact among the birds seldom the females usually sing softly or compete each other with voice. On the contrary we notice that only the males seduce the females with a sweet modulation of the voice and attract them to mating. And therefore Aristotle says: «The partridges, if are in front of the males and the wind blows from the direction where the males are located, they conceive and marry. Besides usually they become pregnant in uterus because of the voice of the males if they are longing and bursting of lust. The same thing can also happen if the males fly above, obviously because the male itself introduces in the female a fertilizing breath.» Which happens especially in spring, that's why the poet Virgil* writes in Georgics:

Vere tument terrae, et genitalia semina poscunt.
Tum pater omnipotens foecundis imbribus aether[11]
Coniugis in gremium laetae descendit, et omnes
Magnus alit, magno commistus corpore, foetus.
Avia tum resonant avibus virgulta canoris;
Et venerem certis repetunt armenta diebus.

In spring the grounds are swollen and ask with insistence the fertilizing seeds.
Then the omnipotent father Ether with the fertile rains
goes down in the womb of the lush wife
and immense it feeds all the feti mixing itself to the immense body.
Then the remote bushes resound with songbirds
and the herds renew the mating in the established days.

Non diu autem post blandas has contrectationes psittacus, qui multos iam annos sanus vixerat, aegrotavit; crebrisque tandem convulsionibus obortis, in dominae suae gremio, ubi toties luserat, animam plurimum desideratus expiravit. Dissecto itaque [200] cadavere, ut mortis causam inquirerem, ovum fere perfectum in utero reperio; sed, ob defectum maris, corruptum. Quemadmodum aviculis in caveis reclusis saepe accidit, quae maris consortium desiderant.

But, not a lot of time after these caressing touches, the parrot, which had lived in health for many years, fell sick, and finally, frequent convulsions having happened, very regretted it sent forth the soul in the lap of its mistress where so many times enjoyed itself. After having sectioned the dead body to investigate the cause of death, I find in the uterus an egg almost completed, but altered for the lack of the male. As it often happens to the birdies confined in the cages, which desire the company of a male.

His aliisque exemplis inducor ut credam, gallum gallinaceum, et phasianum, non solum cantu suo foemellis blandiri, sed eodem etiam ovorum conceptui conferre: noctu enim ad galli cantum, nonnullae ex adsidentibus gallinis sese concutiunt, alas et capita quatientes; quasi horrore blando correptae, a coitu gesticularentur.

From these and other examples I am induced to believe that the cock and the pheasant court the females not only with their song, but that with it they also contribute to the conception of the eggs: in fact at night, when the cock sings, some of the perching hens shake, flapping the wings and the head, as if, pervaded by a light shiver, they gesticulate, induced by the mating.

Avis quaedam, quam cygnus altero tanto maior, non ita pridem ex Java Indiae orientalis insula in Hollandiam advecta est, quam Batavi Cassoware nominabant. Huius iconem Ulysses Aldrovandus[12] exhibet, dicitque eam ab Indis Eme appellari. Non est bisulca, ut struthio, sed in singulis pedibus tres digitos habet; quorum unus calcari adeo longo, duro, et robusto armatur, ut facile tabulam duos transversos digitos crassam calcitrando penetret; antrorsum autem ferit. Corpore quidem, cruribus, et femore struthionem refert; rostrum autem latum, ut hic, non habet, sed teres et nigrum. Super caput, pro crista, cornu orbiculatum gerit extuberans: lingua caret[13]; quaelibet oblata devorat; calculos nempe, carbones, etiam ignitos, et glaciei frusta, sine discrimine: plumae ipsi e singulis calamis binae prodeunt, nigrae, breves, et exiles; ad naturam pilorum, sive lanuginis accedentes. Alas habet valde exiguas, et mutilas. Animal est aspectu truculento, eique palearia rubra, et caerulea, oblonga per collum descendunt.

A bird, bigger than the double of a swan, by the Batavians* called Cassoware - cassowary*, no long time ago has been brought into Holland from Java, an island of East Indies. Ulisse Aldrovandi shows its image  and says that by Indians it is called Eme - emu*. The cassowary doesn't have a forked foot as the ostrich, but in each foot has three toes, one of which is armed with a toenail, shaped like a spur, so long, hard and strong to easily penetrate with a kick a table two crossbeam fingers thick - 3,6 cm; actually it wounds with a forward movement. In body, legs and thigh it seems an ostrich, but it doesn't have a wide beak like this, on the contrary, rounded and black. On the head in place of the tuft it brings a rounded and lifted horn, it lacks a language, it devours anything that is offered, that is, without making distinction, pebbles, carbons, even if red hot, and pieces of ice. Its feathers come out in couple from each quill, black, short and thin, similar to the structure of hair or fluff. It has very small and cut-off wings. The aspect is of a threatening animal and, along the neck, red and blue lengthened wattles go down.

Mansit haec avis amplius annos septem in Hollandia: eamque postea illustrissimus Mauritius princeps Auriacus[14] serenissimo regi nostro Iacobo[15], inter alia munera, dono misit; in cuius hortis supra quinquennium vixit. Postea autem, cum in [201] eundem locum struthiones duo, mas et foemina, {concedissent} <concessissent>; eosque haec Cassoware in proximis claustris (ubi separatim alebantur) saepenumero coeuntes audivisset, vidissetque; inopinato prorsus (sympathia, credo, cognati generis exstimulata) ova concepit. Quotquot enim eam viderant, marem potius ex armis et ornatu, quam foeminam iudicabant. Ex his ovis, unum peperit integrum, quod aperui, et perfectum inveni; albumen nempe luteo circumfusum, cum chalazis sive grandinibus utrinque adnexis, et cavitate exigua in obtuso cacumine; aderat etiam cicatricula, sive macula albicans; testa erat crassa, dura et valida, quam ablato vertice, in  poculum efformari iussi; quemadmodum ex struthionum ovis calices effingi solent. Erat ovum hoc paulo quam struthionum minus, undiquaque, ut dixi, perfectum; proculdubio tamen subventaneum et, ob defectum maris, infoecundum. Matri vero eodem tempore, quo ovum pepererat, mortem praedixi; idque ex sententia Aristotelis, qui ait[16], Aves morbo laborare, et interire, nisi pariant. Quod etiam non multo post evenit; dissectoque cadavere, ovum imperfectum et corruptum in superiore uteri parte, mortem praematuram (ut prius in psittaco, aliisque avibus observaveram) attulisse comperi.

This bird remained for more than 7 years in Holland. Then the illustrious Maurice Prince of Orange sent it as gift, among other gifts, to our Serene King James I, in whose gardens lived for more than 5 years. Afterwards, having come in the same place two ostriches, male and female, and this female of cassowary, having heard and seen them quite a lot of times while mating in the nearby enclosures (where they were separately fed), quite unexpectedly (I believe for syntony, stimulated by the fact of belonging to a related genus - order of Struthioniformes) she conceived some eggs. In fact all those people had seen her, judged that she was a male, for the tools of defence and for the clothes, rather than a female. She laid intact one of these eggs, that I opened and found perfect, that is, the albumen arranged around the yolk with the chalazae, or hails, attached to both sides, and with a small cavity in correspondence of the obtuse pole. Also the cicatricle was present, or white dot, the shell was thick, hard and strong, and after having removed its summit I ordered that it was turned into a cup, like goblets are usually made from the eggs of the ostriches. This egg was slightly smaller than that of the ostriches, perfect in every point, as I said; nevertheless without doubt sterile and, for lack of the male, infertile. To say the truth I foretold to the mother that she would die in the same moment she laid an egg, and this comes from the affirmation of Aristotle who says: «The birds get sick and die if don't give birth». And this happened not a lot of time later; and after having sectioned the dead body, I ascertained that in the upper part of the uterus a defective and altered egg provoked a premature death (as previously I observed in the parrot and in other birds).

Plurimae itaque aves, quanto salaciores, tanto etiam foecundiores sunt; et aliquando sine mare (ob pabuli ubertatem, vel alia aliqua de causa) ova concipiunt: raro autem citra eius operam, ea vel perficiunt, vel pariunt; sed morbis inde potius gravioribus tenentur, tandemque intereunt. Gallina vero non solum ova concipit, sed et parit etiam, eaque perfecta; at hypenemia et infoecunda. Similiter, insecta plurima (in quorum censu bombyces et papiliones sunt) ova concipiunt, et pariunt, absque maris congressu (ut etiam pisces), sed irrita et subventanea.

Insofar a lot of birds, the more they are sexually excited, the more they are also more fertile, and sometimes conceive the eggs without the male (because of the abundance of the food or for some other reason). But rarely, independently from the male, they complete or lay them. On the contrary because of this they are preferably struck by rather serious illnesses and finally die. But the hen not only conceives the eggs, but also lays them, and they are completed, but they are windy and infertile. In the same manner a lot of insects (among which the silkworms and the butterflies) conceive and lay the eggs, and without the intercourse with the male (as also the fishes), but they are infertile and windy.

[202] Quasi in huiusmodi animalibus, ova concipere, perinde foret, ac in puella uterum incalescere, menstrua profluere, fratrare ubera, et, ut paucis dicam, viro maturam esse: quo si privetur diutius, symptomatibus gravioribus, hystericis nempe, aut furore uterino, corripitur; vel in cachexiam aliasque varias aegritudines delabitur. Omnia siquidem animalia, cupidinis oestro percita, ferociunt; et, nisi se invicem fruantur, plurimum tandem a consuetis moribus recedunt. Ita mulieres quaedam insaniunt prae desiderio consuescendi cum viris; et in nonnullis usque adeo saevit hoc malum, ut vel veneficio afflatae, vel sideratae, aut a cacodaemone obsessae iudicentur. Idque saepius contingeret, nisi proba educatio, bonae famae reverentia, et innata huic sexui verecundia, inordinatos hosce animi impetus compescerent.

In such animals the conception of the eggs almost would happen as in a girl the uterus is heating, the menstruations flow, the breasts inflate and, to shortly speak, she is mature for a man, but  if she is deprived of him for a rather long time she would suffer rather serious symptoms, that is hysterical, or uterine craving, or she slips in a cachectic state and other various pathologies. Since all the animals, excited by a sexual stimulus, become fierce, and, if they don't reciprocally satisfy themselves, finally get quite a lot further from the usual behaviour. So some women go mad because of the desire to have intimate relationships with the men, and in some of them this suffering rampages to such a point to them being judged struck by a poisoning, or paralysed, or obsessed by a wicked diabolic being. This would happen rather frequently if an education of good quality, a respect of the good fame and an innate modesty towards this sex didn't brake these messy impetuses of the mind.