¶ De eisdem subventaneis ovis quae apud Albertum observavi adiiciam. Ova venti (inquit) in avibus concipiuntur ex vento maxime. rara enim corpora habent, et aerea, et locum {aui} <ani>, per quem concipiunt, vento expositum. itaque vento ad libidinem moventur, sicut etiam mulieres austro matricem aperientes delectantur, unde menstruus sanguis attrahitur. Fit autem hoc frequenter in avibus propter volatum et continuum caudae motum, propter quem etiam attrahitur semen ad matrices earum. Foeminae enim avium testiculos[1] habent super caudam, et exteriori parte corporis: mares vero interius, ubi aliis animalibus sunt renes. Et rursus, Zephyria ova concipiunt autumno, flante austrino vento[2], hic enim aperit corpora avium, et humectat, et foecundat. Autumno autem abundat in eis sicca ventositas. Aliae vero ova venti concipiunt vere, receptione venti austrini. item ad tactum manus supra anum, et per confricationem.

¶ I will add what I have found in Albertus still apropos of windy eggs. He says: Windy eggs in birds are conceived especially by the wind. For they have light bodies and full of wind, and the position of the anus through which they conceive is exposed to the wind. That’s why they are stirred by the wind to lust, as also women delight to open their wombs to the Austral wind, whence their menstrual blood is compelled to go out. This frequently happens in birds because of flight and the continual motion of tail, by which the semen is also attracted to their wombs. In fact the females of birds have the testicles – the ovaries – upon the tail and outside the body: on the contrary the males have them inside, where in other animals the kidneys lie. And still: In autumn they conceive the zephyrian eggs, when the Austral wind blows, which in fact opens the bodies of birds, and moistens them, and fecundates them. In fact in autumn a dry windiness abounds in them. But other birds conceive windy eggs at springtime, by receiving the Austral wind. Likewise by contact of the hand above the anus, and by rubbing.

Et alibi[3], Ova venti dicuntur, eo quod calor (incubantis avis) resolvere quidem ipsa potest in ventum: sed non formare in pullum. haec tamen ova coagulabilia sunt hepsesi et optesi[4], sed non formabilia, proprio formante destituta. ita enim se habent ut seminis foeminae permixtio cum sanguine menstruo, (sine semini viri,) unde nihil generari potest. Si ova subventanea gallinae subijcias incubanda, nec albugo nec vitellus immutabuntur: sed utrunque colorem suum servabit. unde apparet errasse Galenum cum dixit, semen foeminae quoque coagulare in generatione et formare: etsi minus id efficiat quam semen maris. Inveniuntur quaedam ova venti absque albumine (absque vitello, forte) qualia fiunt quando in materia coitus abundant gallinae ex aliquo cibo singulariter materiam coitus operante. tunc enim absque vitello testa albumini circunducitur: et figura ovi datur et producitur. Vidi ego ovum prorsus sphaericum, duabus testis intectum, una intra alteram, cum albumine aquoso tenui inter utranque absque vitello, et altero etiam albumine intra interiorem testam. quod vero vitellum solum haberet subventaneum ovum visum nullum adhuc est. hic enim pro alimento duntaxat est, membrana discretus ab albumine, quod est sperma foeminae vi matricis et testium[5] attractum ad ovi substantiam. Inveniuntur praeterea quaedam ova venti, quae non habent testam exteriorem, sed membranam tantum quae testae subiici solet. quod fit, quoniam talia ova humida sunt et aquosa: et non habent calorem satis validum: praesertim si cibo humido sperma augente alantur gallinae, Hucusque Albertus.

And elsewhere: They are called wind-eggs since the warmth (of the brooding bird) is able to dissolve them in wind: but not to turn them into chick. Nevertheless these eggs can become hard if boiled and roasted, but they cannot take a form being unprovided with the forming principle. In fact they are constituted like the mixture of the semen of the female with the menstrual blood (without the semen of the male), therefore nothing can be generated. If you will give a hen windy eggs for hatching, neither albumen nor yolk will be modified: but both will keep their color: so it is clear that Galen was wrong when said that also the semen of the female coagulates during the generation and that it moulds the fetus: even if does this to a smaller extent than the semen of the male. Some windy eggs are found without albumen (perhaps without yolk) as they become when the hens have in abundance material coming from coition thanks to some food producing material of the coition in a special way. Then in fact in absence of yolk the shell distributes itself around the albumen: and the shape of an egg is realizing and producing itself. I have seen a quite spherical egg covered by two shells, one inside the other - matreshka egg, with watery and not much thick albumen lying within the two shells and without yolk, and with also a second albumen in the most inner shell. Till now no windy egg has been seen having only the yolk. In fact the latter acts only as food, separated by a membrane from the albumen which is female's semen attracted by the strength of uterus and testicles - ovary - toward the substance composing the egg. Besides some windy eggs are found without the outer shell, but only with that membrane which usually is underneath the shell. This happens because such eggs are damp and watery: and don't have enough intense warmth: above all if the hens are fed on damp food which makes the semen to increase, so far Albertus.

¶ Auctor est in Hexaemero Magnus Basilius, subventanea ova in caeteris irrita esse ac nova, (vana,[6]) nec illis fovendo quicquam excuti: at vultures subventanea fere citra coitum progignere fertilitate insignia. Intelligi vero subventanea seu hypenemia debent, citra coitum concepta libidinis imaginatione, quae ratio molam in foeminis quoque producere creditur, vitae ineptam. quod agens principium ex maris seminio non affuerit, Caelius. Ovum venti est ovum super quod non cecidit tempore coitus ros et virtus de semine maris; et vulgo dicitur ovum venti, quod sterile sit et infoecundum, Bellunensis. Gallinae novellae, quas a Martio mense Germani denominant, pariunt nonnunquam ova subventanea, Eberus et Peucerus. Πλήθουσι γὰρ τοι καὶ ἀνέμων διέξοδοι | θήλειαν ὄρνιν, πλήν ὅταν παρῇ τόκος, Plutarchus Sympos. 8.[7]

¶ Saint Basil the Great writes in his Homilies on six days of creation that in other birds the windy eggs are sterile and unusual (empty), and that by warming them anything cannot spring: but that on the contrary the vultures lay extremely fertile windy eggs without any coition. In truth we have to mean as windy or hypenemia those eggs conceived without the coition because of libidinous imaginations, and they believe that this is the reason producing also in women the uterine mole - maternal mole, which is not vital. Since the active principle coming from the semen of the male didn't arrive, Lodovico Ricchieri. The windy egg is the egg on which didn't fall the dew and the power coming from the semen of the male during the coition, and is commonly said egg of the wind because it is sterile and infertile, Andreas Alpago. The new hens, named by Germans from the month of March, lay sometimes windy eggs, Paul Eber and Caspar Peucer. Plëthousi gàr toi kaì anémøn diéxodoi | thëleian órnin, plën ótan parêi tókos - In fact they fill also with winds the female bird [the hen], except when the time of the birth is approaching, Plutarch, book VIII of Symposiakà or Convivial questions.

Ova quae canicularia et urina (κυνόσουρα καὶ οὔρινα) a nonnullis vocantur, aestate magis consistunt, Aristot.[8] interprete Gaza. forte autem ab eo dicta fuerint cynosura, quod aestate et sub Cane magis urina fiunt. alioqui {sydus} <sidus> etiam cynosura[9] vocatur, nempe ursa minor. Depravantur ova (inquit Aristot. de generatione anim. 3.2.[10]) et fiunt quae urina appellantur, tempore potius calido, idque ratione. Ut enim vina temporibus calidis coacescunt, faece subversa. hoc enim causae est ut depraventur. sic ova pereunt vitello corrupto. id enim in utrisque terrena portio est. quamobrem et vinum obturbatur faece permista, et ovum vitello diffuso. Multiparis igitur hoc accidit merito, cum non facile omnibus calor conveniens reddi possit, sed aliis deficiat, aliis superet, et quasi putrefaciendo obturbet. Uncunguibus etiam quamvis parum foecundis, nihilominus tamen idem evenit. saepe enim vel alterum ex duobus urinum fit, sed tertium semper fere. Cum enim calida sua natura sint, faciunt, ut quasi ferveat supra modum humor ovorum. Cum autem plus iusto calescunt, nisi ex recremento humido sint, saniescunt, reddunturque urina. Columbas inquit idem de hist. 6. 4.[11] ut plurimum bina tantum ova parere. et si quando tria pepererint, binos tantum pullos perfici, ovum tertium urinum relinqui.

The eggs by some called of dog days and not fertilized (kynósoura kaì oúrina) mostly appear in summer, Aristotle translated by Gaza. In fact perhaps they have been called cynosura by him since in summer and during dog days - August - become more infertile. On the other hand also a constellation is called Cynosure, and precisely the Ursa Minor. Eggs are spoiling (Aristotle says in De generatione animalium III,2) and those called unfertilized grow up preferably in the warm season, and this happens for a reason. For as wines grow sour in warm seasons from the shaking-up of lees. In fact this is the reason why they are spoiling. So the eggs turn bad when the yolk is spoiled. For in both cases it represents - they represent - the earthy portion. For this reason they become turbid both wine because of mixed lees and egg because of scattered yolk. Therefore it is natural that this happens in birds laying many eggs, since the proper amount of warmth cannot be easily provided to all eggs, but for some it is insufficient, for others it is too much, and it makes them turbid as though putrefying them. Nevertheless however this also happens in the birds with bent toenails - rapacious - even if they are a little fertile. Often in fact or either become sterile, but the third one almost always. In fact being - these animals - warm for their nature, they do arrange that the liquid part of the eggs warms itself in an excessive way. In fact when they warm themselves more than due, if they are not of damp constitution, they deteriorate and become sterile. He still in Historia animalium VI,4 says that the doves mostly lay only two eggs. And if sometimes they laid three of them, only two chicks are accomplished, the third egg is left sterile.

Urina fiunt incubatione derelicta, quae alii cynosura dixere, Plinius[12]. Ova generationi inepta οὔρια quasi fluctuosa dici legimus. nam οὔρον dicunt ventum[13], quo argumento etiamnum ab Homero mulos dici οὐρῆας coniectant periti, et recenset Eustathius: διὰ τὸ ἄγονον, id est ob insitam non gignendi proprietatem, quod eorum semen sit ἀνεμαῖον id est spiritosum, et proinde foecunditatis nescium[14], Caelius. Unde fit ut

τὰ ἀφανισθέντα ὠά καὶ ἐξουρίσαντα[15], hoc est corrupta et urina ova, fluitent? Integra certe καὶ ἀπαθῆ, confestim sidere, manifestum est. Ac ratio quidem erui illinc potest, quod aquescant ac spiritus contabescentia concipiant plurimum. Qua ratione colligitur et illud, cur in aqua pereuntes, primo quidem ima petere: mox ubi computrescere coeperint, emergere ac fluitare soleant, etc. Idem. Ab exhausto ovo facile plenum discernes, si ea in aquam demiseris. hoc siquidem descendet et delabetur, illud vero natabit in superficie, Leontinus. Ovum recens positum in aqua salsa supernatat, in dulci vero submergitur, ut Aponensis in problematis scribit. Aquam marinae similiter salsam reddituri, tandiu salem inijciunt, donec ovum non subsidat.

If the incubation is abandoned they become sterile those - eggs - called by others cynosura, Pliny. We read  that eggs not fitting for procreation are called oúria as they were shaken by waves. For they call a wind  oúron – the favourable wind, which is why the experts conjecture that the mules are called ourêas also by Homer, and Eustathius expounds with dià tò ágonon, that is, because of an inborn characteristic of infertility, since their semen is anemaîon, that is, windy and therefore unfit to fecundity, Lodovico Ricchieri. What is the reason why tà aphanisthénta øá kaì exourísanta – the rotten eggs and full of wind, i. e., corrupted and sterile eggs keep afloat? On the contrary it is evident that those intact and which didn't suffer damage - kaì apathê – sink at once. The reason, he says, can be drawn from the fact that they become liquid like water and while decaying they take up a lot of air. For this reason it can also be gathered why when steeped in water, first they go to the bottom: as soon as they begun to rot, usually they come up and float, etc., still Lodovico Ricchieri. You can easily distinguish a filled egg from a dried one if you will put them in water. The former in fact will go down and sink, the latter will swim in surface, Leontinus - a geoponic. An egg just laid put in salty water is floating, while in sweet water sinks, as Pietro of Abano writes in Expositio problematum Aristotelis. Those people who are about to transform some water so salty like that of sea, add salt to such an extent that the egg is floating.