[196] hoc est, Persica avis, Gallinaceus dicitur a crista, in dictionario Syrochaldaico כרבהא carvelada legitur pro crista Galli, et metaphorice in Arve pro veste rubea instar cristae Galli. Hinc כרבלנ Curbalin Cuculli, capitis involucra instar galearum, vel iuxta alios pallia. Ab hac nota Galli {Theocriro} <Theocrito>[1] alibi Ὄρνιθες φοινικολόφοι, hoc est, aves rubricristatae, Latinis cristatae volucres appellari meruerunt, et Martialis[2] Gallos cristatos dixit eo versu.

Nondum cristati rupere silentia Galli.

that is, the cock is called the Persian bird because of the comb; in the Syro-Chaldaic dictionary is read carvelada for rooster's comb, and in Arve metaphorically for a dress which is red like a rooster's comb. From this source curbalin they are the hoods, helmet-shaped headgears, or cloaks for others. From this feature the roosters earned somewhere from Theocritus the name of Órnithes phoinikolóphoi, that is red combed birds, and from Latins of combed birds, and Martial called them combed cocks by this verse:

Not yet have the combed cocks broken the silence.

Ut vero Galli cristam erectam, ita Gallinae {plicabilem}[3] <plicatilem>[4] obtinuere, et per medium caput deorsum dependentem: quare nescio, quid in mentem venerit Giberto Longolio illas fere disertissimis verbis carere profitenti. Hac abscissa animal non moritur; nam parum sanguinis ex inflicto vulnere effluit. Super qua re mira apud Sigismundum liberum[5] baronem historia legitur in descriptione itineris sui per Moscoviam; quae talis est: Gallum, inquit, Moscoviticum more Germanorum super currum sedentem, frigoreque iam iam morientem, famulus crista, quae gelu concreta erat, subito abscissa non solum hoc modo servavit, verum etiam ut erecto statim collo cantaret, nobis admirantibus effecit[6].

But, like the cocks got an upright comb, then the hens got it flexible and hanging down from the middle of the head: therefore I don’t know what crossed Longolius’ mind when he stated with very eloquent words that they nearly lack it. When it is cut away, the animal doesn’t die; for very little blood flows from inflicted wound. With regard to that, in Sigismund, baron of Herberstein, in the description of his journey through Moscow, we can read a surprising tale which sounds as follows: a Muscovite cock, he says, roosting upon a cart according to the German custom, and which was dying at any moment because of the cold, a servant, after quickly cut off its completely frozen comb, not only did he save it in this way, but he achieved also that the bird suddenly straightened the neck and began to crow, while we were astonished.

Sed iam ad alia transeamus. Oculi harum avium splendidi sunt, et limpidi. Aiunt quibus tales natura largita est, vulgo salaces, et libidinosos haberi. Membranosa illa cutis, quae sub mento, et collo utrinque dependet, palea dicitur: sic apud Columellam[7] legimus: Paleae ex rutilo albicantes, quae velut incanae barbae dependent. Similiter et in bobus palearia dicimus, quae a pectore, et collo dependent. Hanc membranam, si ita appellare placet, Aristoteles[8], κάλλαιον vocat: in cuius {voce} <vocis> traductione Gaza maximopere hallucinatus est, cristam vertens. Haec enim in vertice erecta est: κάλλαια sive paleae utrinque a malis dependent. Videntur autem κάλλαια dicta ob purpureum, floridumque colorem. Nam κάλλη Graeci floridos colores dicunt, τὰ ἄνθη τῶν βαμμάτων, ut Ammonius[9] de differentiis vocum interpretatur, et ibidem κάλλαια, τοὺς τῶν ἀλεκτρυόνων πώγωνας. Ornithologus Latinam vocem paleae a Graecis deductam esse conijcit, κ nempe in π mutato, et λ uno exempto. Pro κάλλαια apud Varinum κάλλαιοι legitur pro Gallinacei barba, et omni colore purpureo, vel secundum alios vario: et alibi κάλεα habet pro eadem barba, et secundum Aelium Dionysium[10] ea vox eodem authore pennas in cauda {earum} <eorum>[11] significat.

But now let me pass on to other things. The eyes of these birds are shining and limpid. They say that those, to whom Nature gave such eyes, they are usually believed as lustful and libidinous. That membranous skin which hangs on both sides under the chin and the neck is called palea - wattle: thus we read in Columella: Wattles of whitish red which hang like beards of elderly people. Similarly also in oxen we call palearia – dewlaps - the membranes hanging from chest and neck. This membrane, if one chooses to call it so, Aristotle names it kállaion: Theodorus Gaza was widely led astray when he translated this word, being that he renders it as comb. For this one stands upright on the top of the head: the kállaia or wattles hang down on both sides from the cheeks. On other hand they think that the kállaia – wattles - are so called because of their purple and bright color. For the Greeks call kállë - the beauties - the bright colors, tà ánthë tøn bammátøn - the splendors of dye, as Ammonius of Alexandria interprets in his work about the differences of the words, and in the same treatise kállaia, toùs tøn alektryónøn pøgønas - the wattles, the beards of the cocks. The Ornithologist conjectures that the Latin word paleae has been drawn from Greeks, and precisely with the change of κ into π and one λ taken away. In Varinus we read kállaioi instead of kállaia with the meaning of rooster’s beard and of any purple color, or variegated according to others: elsewhere he has kálea for the same beard and, as he himself is testifying, according to Aelius Dionysius this word means the feathers they have on tail.

Rostrum omnium avium vulgus Italicum becco vocat vocabulo Tolosano antiquo, quanquam privatim Gallinacei rostrum, Suetonio[12] teste, significaret: est autem utrique sexui robustum, et in superiori parte aduncum, coloris plerunque cornei. Hesychio, et Varino κόραξ modo Corvum, et omnibus Graecis, significat, modo summa Gallinaceorum rostra, nimirum a nigro colore quem Graeci κορὸν[13] vocant: at nostris Gallis utraque rostri pars eiusdem fere semper coloris est: quare forte extremitates intellexerint, quae quandoque ad nigredinem vergunt. Carnem illam, quae rostrum undique cingit, nonnulli mentum vocant, Columella[14] vero etiam genam. Longiores caeteris plumae aliae collum in Gallo, et cervicem undique ambiunt. Has Columella[15] apposito quidem vocabulo iubas appellabat. Sunt enim iubae crines animalium a collo dependentes, in quibus videntur aliquod robur corporis sui agnoscere: unde Plinius[16] tunc praecipuam Leonis generositatem spectari, tradit, quum colla, armosque vestiunt iubae. Atque ita eodem modo pugnaturi, et irati etiam explicant Gallinacei, quasi et in suis aliquid sit, quod iracundiam, et animositatem eorum demonstret.

Common Italian people, by an ancient word of Toulouse, call becco the beak of all birds, although, according to Suetonius, it had specifically the meaning of beak of a chicken: for it is strong in both sexes and hooked in the upper part, generally horn-colored. For Hesychius and Varinus as well as for all Greeks kórax now means rook, now the upper part of the beak of chickens, surely because of the black color which the Greeks name as koròn: but in our roosters both components of the beak are almost always of the same color: so perhaps they understood the apices which sometimes tend to be black. That flesh, which surrounds the beak all around, some people call it chin, truly Columella calls it also cheek. Other feathers, longer than other ones, surround both rooster's neck and nape all around. Columella called these feathers by an apt word as iubae - manes. In fact the manes are the hair of the animals hanging down from the neck, in which it seems to recognize a certain strength of their body: whence Pliny tells that the maximum of the lion’s courage can be observed when the mane covers the neck and the shoulders. And thus also roosters straighten it when they are about to fight and are angry, as though also among their qualities there is someone showing their anger and pugnacity.

Apicius[17] in pullo quandam corporis partem navim vocat, pullum a navi aperiri iubens: putaverim autem omnino pectus ita appellare, sed nullo interim firmo argumento nixus, nisi quia mox pullum farsilem a pectore aperire iubeat. Scio tamen Humelbergium partem ventris posteriorem interpretari, quod ut navis cavus, et figura<e>[18] eius non dissimilis sit.

In the chicken Apicius calls ship a certain part of body, prescribing that the chicken should be opened from the ship: I think that doubtless he calls in this way the chest, however without relying upon any strong argument, except that afterwards he is prescribing that a to be stuffed chicken should be opened from the chest. Nevertheless I know that Gabriel Hummelberg interprets it as the rear belly’s portion, being that it is hollow like a ship, and is not dissimilar to its shape.

Cauda in hoc avium genere maribus maior est quam faeminis: praeterea binae illis sunt pennae longissimae propter teneritudinem incurvi arcus imaginem prae se ferentes, quae in faeminis non sunt: atque illud est, quod Albertus dicere voluit hisce verbis: Gallus pennas in cauda instar semicirculi curvat, et similiter in collo, et dorso, videlicet cum irascitur, aut ad pugnam sese parat. Plinius[19] etiam caudam falcatam in sublime erigere Gallum dixit. Ὄτραν[20] Hesychius, et Varinus peculialiter Gallinacei caudam vocant. Pennas illas, quas Gallinis, et Capis saginandis sub cauda evellimus, quidam Germani, teste Ornithologo[21], a tali actione Mastfaederen, hoc est pennas pinguefactorias privatim nominarunt.

In this genus of birds the tail is larger in males than in females: furthermore they have two very long feathers - one on each side, the main sickles -, which are not present in females, which because of their softness show the image of a curved bow: and it is what Albertus wanted to say by these words: The rooster curves his tail feathers in a semicircle, and likewise on neck and back, without doubt when it gets angry and gets ready for a fight. Pliny said that the rooster erects on high also his sickle-shaped tail. Hesychius and Varinus call the rooster's tail specifically as ótran. Those feathers which we pull out from under the tail in hens and capons to be fattened, some Germans, on witness of the Ornithologist, according to such a purpose they specifically called them Mastfaederen, that is, fattening's feathers.

Armantur calcari mares potissimum, ut scripsit Aristoteles[22], et faeminae magna ex parte ea non habent. In maribus in magnam molem quandoque excrescunt, quales illi sunt, quos post depingeremus.

Especially the males are armed with spur, as Aristotle wrote, and the females generally do not have them. In the males sometimes they grow to a great size, such as they are those males I shall portray later.