Quibus verbis dum non multum moribus a vernaculis differre tradit, a Varrone, et Plinio dissentire videri possit, nisi alias ita scriberet[1]: Deliaci, nempe scriptores[2], quia procera corpora, et animos ad praelia pertinaces requirebant, praecipue Tanagricum genus, et Rhodium probabant, nec minus Chalcidicum, et Medicum, quod ab imperito vulgo litera mutata Melicum appellatur. Et alibi etiam Rhodias aves (intelligit autem Gallinas) foetus suos non commode nutrire scripsit. Ita et Plinius[3], Ex Gallinaceis, inquit, quidam ad bella tantum, et praelia assidua nascuntur, quibus etiam patrias nobilitarunt Rhodum, {et} <aut> Tanagram. Quos itaque sagacissima parens rerum natura, maiores ac pugnaciores aliis fecit, eosdem contra steriliores caeteris esse voluit.

While by these words he is telling that regarding their behaviour they do not differ too much from our chickens, it might appear that he is dissenting from Varro and Pliny unless elsewhere he writes as follows: Those of Delos, the writers breeders of course, being that they looked for tall bodies and stubborn spirits in fighting, overall appreciated Tanagran and Rhodian breeds, as well as Chalcidian and Median, which with one changed letter is called Melian by incompetent folk. Elsewhere he wrote too that Rhodian birds (but he means hens) do not properly take care of their chicks. Also Pliny similarly says: Among chickens some are born only for continuous wrestling and fighting, thanks to which they also made renowned their native lands, Rhodes or Tanagra. And therefore those whom the very shrewd Mother Nature created larger and more pugnacious than others, on the other hand she want that they themselves were more unfruitful than all the others.

Albertus quasdam Gallinas Hadriani Regis appellat, et apud suos magnas vocari ait, magni scilicet, et oblongi corporis. Abundant, inquit, apud Hollandos, et Zelandos, et ubique in Germania {superiore} <inferiore>[4]. Harum Galli forte cum iam dictis similes fuerint. Etsi vero Varro[5] Tanagricos Gallos, Medicos, et Chalcidicos ad partus steriliores, Albertus contra eas Gallinas quotidie parere dicat, non tamen ideo omnino diversum genus esse crediderim. Fieri enim potest, ut apud Hollandos, et Zelandos, quorum regio fere in {extrema} <extremo> septentrione sita est, foecundi sint, et apud Graecos steriles in regionibus videlicet calidissimis: vel potius Varro ad partus steriles dixit, quoniam in pullos saeviant[6], nam Albertus de Hollandicis Gallinis prodidit, minime in {suas}[7] <suos> benignas esse, eosque saepe interimere; et Columella[8] Rhodias aves foetus suos non commode nutrire tradit.

Albertus calls certain hens of the Hadrian King and says that by his own people they are called great, that is, of large and long body. He says: They abound among the Hollanders and Zeelanders and everywhere in the province of Germania Inferior. Perhaps the cocks of these hens could be similar to those just mentioned. But although Varro is saying that Tanagran, Median, and Chalcidian roosters are rather unfruitful with regard to offspring, and on the contrary Albertus claims that these hens lay daily, nevertheless I should not be inclined to believe that because of this they are a quite different breed. For it may be that among Hollanders and Zeelanders, whose territory is nearly located in the extreme north, they are fertile, and sterile among Greeks in undoubtedly very warm regions: or rather, Varro said that they are unfruitful with regard to offspring because they are pitiless with chicks, and in fact Albertus with regard to Dutch hens reported that they are nowise kind to their chicks, and that often they kill them; and Columella records that Rhodian hens do not properly take care of their chicks.

Hermolaus Barbarus et Longolius[9], viri alioqui doctissimi, Medicas eas Gallinas esse credunt, quae vulgo Patavinae, et Longobardicae vocantur. Quorum ego opinioni neutiquam subscrivere nec possum, nec volo. Siquidem tam manifestam differentiam, qua a caeteris omnibus distinguuntur, nempe quod cauda destitutae sint, profecto veteres nequaquam erant praeterituri. Fuerint itaque genus diversum, neque etiam credibile est veteres eas, vel Medicas, vel Tanagricas, vel alio quovis peregrino nomine compellaturos fuisse, si Patavii in medio fe<r>me Italiae sinu eas habebant. Caeterum Patavinas pulverarias a vico cognominari Hermolaus[10] testis est, grandissimas et spectabiles maxime: Pulverarias autem dici intellexi ab Excellentissimo M. Antonio Ulmo Patavino a vico quodam, ubi abundant, et cuius Caelo miro modo gaudent, adeo ut ibi fertilitatis miraculum adaequent, et cum ad alia loca etiam vicina importantur, nisi sterilescant, saltem maximopere degenerent. Has quidam Germanice circumscribentes interpretantur gross vvelsch hennen, id est grandes Italicas Gallinas. Nos, inquit Longolius tales habemus Gallinaceos, altis cruribus, absque cauda. Grande Genus Gallinaceorum, quod pedibus usque sublatis incedit, plumis ex auro fulvis, patrum memoria in Germaniam ex proximis provinciis advectum est. Videntur autem Medici, quanquam non Media modo, verum Boeotiae civitas Tanagra, et Rhodus, Chalcisque insulae insignes corpore suffecerunt. Unde istos vel Medicos, vel Tanagricos, vel Rhodios, vel Chalcidicos appellare licebit. Vulgus Longobardicos nuncupat. Pauci a villaticis educantur, quod parum foecundi sint. Haec ille.

Hermolaus Barbarus and Longolius, in other respects very learned men, believe that those hens commonly called Paduan and Lombard are Median. By no manner of means neither I will nor I can share their opinion. Being that a such evident difference by which they differ from all other hens, that is, because they are lacking tail, without doubt by no means would escaped the ancients. Therefore they could be a different breed, and not even is trustworthy that ancients would have called them Median or Tanagran hens, or by any other foreign name, being that they had them at Padua, almost in the center of the Italy heart. Besides Hermolaus is witness to the fact that Paduan Polverara hens take the name from a village, and that they are very large sized and very handsome: for I learned that by the very excellent Marco Antonio Olmo from Padua the Polverara hens are so called from a certain village, where they abound, and whose climate they marvelously enjoy, so that here they reach the miracle of fertility, and when they are moved in other localities even though neighbouring, if they do not become sterile, at least they change quite a lot. Some, terming them in German, call these hens gross welsch hennen, that is, large Italian hens. Longolius says: We have such chickens, with long legs and without tail. A large breed of chickens, which walks with ever up legs, with golden buff feathers, through memory of our fathers was brought into Germany from nearby provinces. They look like Median chickens indeed, although not only the Media, but truly the Boeotian city of Tanagra and the islands of Rhodes and Chalcis supplied subjects of outstanding body. Then it will be right to call those subjects as Median, or Tanagran, or Rhodian, or Chalcidian. Common people call them Lombard. Few of them are raised by peasants, as they are not very prolific. These are his own words.

Navigationum in Indiam authores in regno Senegae Gallinas esse referunt, quae Gallinae Pharaonis dicantur; deferri autem ex Oriente: item apud Tarnasaros[11] Indiae populos alios Gallos et Gallinas reperiri nostratibus triplo maiores. Postremo Petrus Martyr[12] in Imaica insula Gallinas reperiri, author est, quae Pavonibus nec magnitudine, nec sapore cedant.

Those who make journeys to India by sea tell that in the kingdom of Senegal there are hens which would be called Pharaoh’s hens - Numida meleagris?; on the other hand they are brought here from East: likewise, among the Tarnasari people of India other roosters and hens are found three times larger than our own. Finally Peter Martyr says that on Jamaica island hens are found which do not fall short of peacocks in neither size nor flavour.

Atque hactenus magnitudine discrepantur. Iam reliquas, si quae sint, differentias prosequamur. Aelianus[13] mutos Gallos dari astruere videtur, cum ait. Nibas locus est Thessalonicae civitati Macedoniae vicinus, in quo Gallinaceorum genus perpetuo mutum silentio nunquam familiari his alitibus cantu vocale auditur: inde adeo natum est proverbium, et cum futurum aliquid dicitur, cum Nibas cecinerit, res {impessibilis} <impossibilis> intelligatur. Verum nunquid istaec manifesta differentia sit, an potius proprietate aliqua illius loci occulta procedat, quod Gallinaceus ibi non canat, aliis inquirendum relinquo. Ego autem id mihi facile persuadeo. Quod vero Theophrastus[14], eodem Aeliano[15] referente, negat in regionibus frigidis, et ubi Caeli constitutio nimium humida est, Gallinaceos canere, id plane credere non possum, secus enim Hollandia, Frisia, Norvegia, et remotiores septentrionis regiones demonstrant, in quibus etsi frigidae sint, et humidae, Galli nihilo remissius quam in quavis calida regione canunt, tantum abest, ut prorsus obmutescant.

But until this point they differ for their size. Now let me describe the remaining differences, if some are existing. Aelian seems to assert that there are mute roosters, when he says: Nibas is a place near the town of Thessalonica in Macedonia where the population of roosters, mute in a perpetual silence, never is heard to utter a sound thanks to the singing which is usual for these birds: whence even a proverb arose, and when they say that something will happen when a rooster of Nibas will crow, it must be regarded as an impossible thing. But I leave others to inquire whether, as there the rooster is not crowing, this is an unequivocal difference, or rather it is proceeding from some hidden property of that place. But I am quite persuaded of the following. I cannot believe at all what Theophrastus is saying, as Aelian himself is referring, when he denies that roosters crow in cold regions and where the climate is too much humid, for Holland, Friesland, Norway and more remote northern countries demonstrate otherwise, in which, although they are cold and humid, the roosters crow not at all more lazily than in any warm region, it is so far that they become completely silent.

Manifestam porro corporis tegumento differentiam constituunt. Non enim omnes pennis teguntur, sed nonnullae, licet rarae, ceu lanis vestiuntur, unde lanigerae dictae sunt, nonnullae pilis, quales in civitate Quelim in regno Mangi reperiuntur, pilis more felis nigris vestitae, nostrat<i>um more parientes, et bonam edentibus carnem praestantes. Lanigeras Fuch urbs maxima versus Orientem, ut Odoricus ex foro Iulii[16] testatur, producit, tanti candoris, ut vix nivi cedant.

Furthermore they show an evident difference by the covering of the body. For not all - the hens - are covered with feathers, but some, although rare, are covered like with wool, whence they are called woolly, some are covered with hair, such as those found in the city of Quelim - Quenlinfu, Kien-ning Fu - in the kingdom of Mangi, wearing black hair like that of a cat, laying eggs as our hens do, and they offer tasteful meat for eating. The very big city of Fuch - Fuzhou, toward the East, produces woolly hens of such a whiteness, as Odoricus from Friuli testifies, that barely they are less than snow.