Κώκαλον[1] genus [189] quoddam Gallinacei{.}<,> Iidem. Et Κώκαλος, Varino quoque proprium nomen est. Μηδικοί, aves Medicae, Gallinacei{.}<,> Iidem. Aristophanes[2] μῆδον avem facere videtur. Scholiastes Gallinaceum accipiendum suspicatur. Alibi quidem dubitat, an ulla avis recte μῆδος appelletur. Caelius[3] a Medis dici asserens, etiamsi, inquit, in latinis literis Medicum de procuratore {pronunciari} <pronuntiari> animadvertimus a verbo μήδομαι, idest curo. Sed cum Gallinaceus ab eodem comico etiam Persica avis dicatur, Medum quoque, vel Medicam avem pro Gallinaceo accipi ab eo verisimile est.

Køkalon is a kind of chicken, again Hesychius and Varinus. And køkalos also for Varinus is a proper name. Mëdikoí, Median birds, they are the roosters, the same authors. It seems that Aristophanes is considering mëdon as a bird. The scholiast suspects that a rooster must be meant. But elsewhere he doubts that some bird is correctly called mëdos - from Media. Lodovico Ricchieri, when affirming that it takes the name from the Medes, says: although we realize that in Latin Medicus – doctor - is said of one who cares for somebody, from the verb mëdomai, that is I take care of’. But being that by this comic writer the cock is also said Persian bird, it is likely that also the Median bird, or Medicus bird, is meant by him as cock.

Ὀλόφωνος Hesychio Gallinaceus est, sic dictus vel a lopho, id est crista, vel ab eo quod inter canendum in sublime se erigat, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐν τῷ ᾄδειν ὄλον αἴρεσθαι καὶ μετεωρίζεσθαι. Ὀρταλίς Nicandro Gallinam significat. Ὄρνιθα casu recto Graecis hodie vulgo Gallina est. Ὀρθοβόαν[4] Gallum dicebat Alexarchus Cassandri Macedonum Regis frater, qui Uranopolim aedificavit, quique peculiares dicendi formas invexit, nimirum quod inter canendum se erigat, unde et ὀλόφωνον, dictum quidam conijciunt, ut diximus nisi quasi ὀρθροβόαν potius a matutino cantu[5], sic appellatum placeat. Ὀρτάλιχος[6] vox poëtica tum Gallum ipsum, tum pullum Gallinaceum significat, sed pullum frequentius, ut post dicemus[7]. Boeotice tamen ipsi Gallinacei etiam sic dicuntur apud Aristophanem[8], ut referunt Scholiastes, et Varinus. Ὀρθριοκόκκυγα[9] Sophocles habet pro Gallina, ni fallor[10]. Περσικός ὄρνις Persica avis Gallinaceus dicitur propter cristam. Unde Aristophanes[11]: Multos pueros deceperunt amatores, alius Coturnice, alius Persica ave, aliave donata: Ubi Scholiastes Pretiosa, inquit, omnia quibus solus Persarum rex utebatur, Persica vocabantur, et hoc in loco avis Persica non certam aliquam avem designat. Sunt tamen, qui Gallinaceum, et qui Pavonem interpretantur. Pist<h>et{h}aerus[12] Gallum avem Persicam dici tradit ab Alectryone olim, ut diximus apud Persas imperante[13]. Ubi etiam Scholiastes, forte, inquit, Alectryona vocat Medum avem. Nam Persas Medos quoque appellabant. Σέρκος Hesychio, et Varino Gallinaceus est, et σέλκες Gallina<e>. Χειλῶνες Gallinacei quidam{.}<,> Iidem. Ψήληκες[14], τῶν ἀλεκτρυόνων οἱ νοθαγένναι, Suidas, et Hesychius. ᾿ῼδός ὄρνις, pro Gallinaceo legitur apud Pollucem. Caeterum cum pullus adhuc est, seu recenter natum, hoc Gallinaceum genus, Graecis, uti etiam {latinis} <Latinis>, aliter dicitur. Νεοσσός nimirum illis, his pullus: at Nicander ea voce pro Gallinaceo adulto usus est hoc versu[15]. Ὀρταλίς αἰχμητῆσιν ὑπευνηθεῖσα νεοσσοῖς. Νέβρακες Hesych. et Varinus pullos Gallinaceos appellant. Ab Athenaeo[16] νεοσσοί ὄρνιθες, et ἵπποι dicuntur, id est, quasi <e>quuli. Credo, inquit Hermolaus, quia pulli proprie sunt equorum. Νεοττίδες ἀλεκτορίδων καὶ χηνῶν Aristoteli[17] dicuntur faemellae iuvencae e Gallinaceo genere, vel Anserino, quae nuper scilicet parere coeperunt: possunt et sic dici antequam pepererint. Ὀρταλίχους Etymologus[18], et Varinus pullos vocant, qui nondum volare possunt. Hinc ὀρταλίζειν[19], verbum de avibus volare incipientibus, vel de iis, qui pueros in sublime efferunt, citato motu, et improprie deinde de aliis motibus: Aristophani[20] vero superbire, et efferri significat, haud dubio propter naturam Galli, qui, ut diximus, etiam ὀρτάλιχος dicitur[21].

Olóphønos - wholly voice - is the rooster in Hesychius, so called either from lòphos, i.e. comb, or from the fact that he straightens up when crowing, apò toû en tøi áidein ólon αíresthai kaì meteørízesthai - because when crowing he raises whole himself and becomes proud. Ortalís - young hen - in Nicander means hen. Órnitha, in the nominative case, today among Greeks is commonly meaning hen - in modern Greek it is køtta, or órnis. Alexarchus, the brother of Cassander king of the Macedonians, who founded Uranopolis, and who brought in peculiar forms of speech, called the rooster orthobóan, just because it stretches up while crowing, whence some infer that it is also called olóphønon, as we said, unless we prefer to think that it is so called as being an orthrobóan -  órthros = dawn, from its morning song. The poetic word ortálichos means both the cock itself and a young chicken, but more often chick, as I shall say later on. Nevertheless, as the scholiast and Varinus report, in Boeotia the gallinaceous themselves are so called in Aristophanes. Unless I am mistaken, Sophocles has orthriokókkyga for the hen. Persikós órnis, Persian bird, is said the rooster because of the comb. Whence Aristophanes: Lovers have deceived many young boys, one with a quail, another one with a Persian bird, or presenting with another one: the scholiast says on this subject: All precious things which the Persian king alone made use of were called Persian, and in this passage Persian bird does not indicate a specific bird., However some people interpret as rooster, others as peacock. Pisthetaerus says that the cock is called Persian bird from Alektryon who once ruled the Persians. Also the scholiast on this passage says perhaps calls Alectryona the Median bird. For they called the Persians also Medes. Sérkos in Hesychius and Varinus is the rooster and sélkes are the hens. Cheilônes are certain chickens, the same authors. Psëlëkes, tôn alektryónøn hoi nothaghénnai - Psëlëkes, the bastards of the cocks, the lexicon Suidas and Hesychius. In Julius Pollux we read øidós órnis - øidós = singer - for the cock. But this kind of gallinaceous, when it is still a chick, or is recently born, is called otherwise by Greeks and Latins. Precisely, for those it is a neossós, for these a pullus: but Nicander in order to indicate a grown gallinaceous used that word in the following verse: Ortalís aichmëtësin hypeunëtheîsa neossοîs - the hen lying beneath aggressive roosters. Hesychius and Varinus call nébrakes the gallinaceous chicks. By Athenaeus they are called neossoí órnithes - young birds, and híppoi, that is, as if they were foals. Hermolaus says I do believe because the pulli - young animals -properly belong to the horses. Neottídes alektorídøn kaì chënôn - the young pullets of hens and geese - for Aristotle are said the young females of gallinaceous genus, or of geese, i.e. which just began to lay: they can also be so called before they laid. The Etymologicon magnum and Varinus call ortalíchous the chickens which cannot yet fly. Whence the verb ortalízein for the birds beginning to fly or for those which by a quick movement carry their children aloft, and afterwards improperly for other activities: in fact for Aristophanes it means to become proud of puffed up, no doubt because of the rooster’s nature, which, as I said, is also called ortálichos - rooster, in Theocritus.

Quemadmodum vero ὄρνις apud Graecos, ut dictum est, eodem pariter modo apud {latinos} <Latinos> avis aliquando pro Gallo, Gallinave absolute ponitur. Ita Rhodias aves pro Rhodiis Gallinis Columella[22] dixit, et Graece Ταναγραῖους ὄρνιθας, genere masculino pro Gallinaceis Tanagraeis legimus. Apud probatissimos authores latinos Gallus dicitur, et cum adiectione Gallinaceus, et simpliciter quoque Gallinaceus. Unde Albertum, aliosque latini sermonis imperitiores hallucinari constat, cum Gallum Gallinaceum, Capum, hoc est Gallum castratum interpretentur. In quem errorem ipsemet Isidorus[23] etiam impegit, Gallum simpliciter Capum appellans, eo, ut videtur, argumento nixus, quod veteres Gallos castratos vocarent: cum tamen contra veteres classici quique Gallos mares in hoc avium genere nuncupent. Haud me latet interim Martialem alibi aperte scribere, Gallum a castratione dici, sed is eo loco iocatur, non serio agit. Ait autem{.}<:>[24]

Ne nimis exhausto macresceret inguine Gallus,
Amisit testes, nunc mihi Gallus erit.

As it was said, as órnis is used among Greeks, alike sometimes among Latins is used avis – bird - without distinction for cock or hen. So Columella said Rhodian birds for Rhodian hens, and in Greek we read Tanagrαîous órnithas in the masculine gender for Tanagran chickens. By very esteemed Latin authors Gallus is said both with addition of Gallinaceus and also simply as Gallinaceus. Hence it is evident that Albertus Magnus and others less skilled in Latin speech are getting the wrong end of the stick, being that they interpret the Gallus Gallinaceus as capon, i.e. a castrated cock. Isidore himself fell into the same error when calling the gallus simply as capon, relying on that reasoning, it seems, according to which the ancients called the roosters as castrated: while however on the contrary every first-class ancient writer is naming the roosters as males among this genus of birds. In the meantime I don’t miss that Martial somewhere clearly writes that a Gaul is so called from castration, but in that passage he is joking, he is not in earnest. For he says:

The cock, lest he should grow too thin having dried up the lower belly,
gave up his testicles, now he will be for me a Gallus – a priest of Cybele.

Gallinae, inquit M. Varro[25], trium sunt Generum, Villaticae, rusticae, et Africanae. E quibus tribus generibus proprio nomine vocantur faeminae, quae sunt villaticae gallinae, mares Galli, Capi seminares {seminares} <semimares>, {quod sint castrati} <qui sunt castrati>. Hinc Gyb. Longolius[26] totum hoc avium genus, quod de Gallinario devolat, Gallinaceos vocari scribens, id quoque nullo probato authore fretus fecisse videri potest: Cum Gallinarum saepius quam Gallinaceorum nomen universaliter pro toto genere ab authoribus usurpetur, quam nimirum pluries ut videmus in hoc genere, quam mares propter utilitatem, alantur Faeminae enim ut post suo loco patebit, maximam propter partum praebent utilitatem, et unus mas multis sufficit. Gallinaceus a Gallina fieri videtur, et vel simpliciter pro Gallo ponitur, vel tanquam epitheton ei adiungitur, differentiae fortassis gratia, ut nimirum amphibologia evitetur.

Marcus Varro says Hens are of three kinds, courtyard, wild and African. Of these three kinds with fitting name are called females those which are courtyard hens, males the cocks, capons the half males, which are castrated. Therefore being that Gisbert Longolius writes that this entire genus of birds is called gallinaceous because it flies down from poultry pen, we can also think that he did so without basing himself on some esteemed author: for by authors it is generally used the word gallinae  -hens - more often than that of gallinacei for the entire genus, as we just notice that among this genus very often the females are raised for utility instead of males, and in fact, as it will appear in its proper place, they offer a very great utility because of offspring, and only one male suffices for many females. They guess that gallinaceus comes from gallina, and is either used alone for the rooster or is added to it as an adjective, perhaps because of the difference, in order that just an ambiguity is avoided.