[327] Unicum item caput hi pulli pariter gemini, et parum a superioribus differentes habebant, sed corpora magis quam in illis coniungebantur.

Likewise also these twin chicks had only one head and barely differed from the previous ones, but their bodies were more joined in comparison with them.

Si vero avis ulla monstrifica appellanda est, ea erit Gallus iste, quem vivum ante aliquot annos in aula Serenissimi Magni Hetruriae Ducis Francisci Medicei observavi: viris etiam magnanimis aspectu suo terrifico pavorem incutiebat. Caput non crista carnea, ut in vulgaribus Gallis ornabatur, nec paleae quoque erant carneae, sed uti aeque ex plumis constabant militum conos, quibus galeas exornant, aemulantibus. Habebat in fronte duas pennas, seu potius pennarum calamos (erant enim nudae) surrectos, ceu duo cornua; item binos alios ab utraque rostri prope nares parte, sed qui in extremitate plumas tenuissimas ad instar setarum {a}ederent, necnon et alium in cervice, qui a principio fere eiusmodi setis erat exornatus. Color totius corporis fere subfuscus, sed radices pennarum erant albae, pennae varo ita erant constitutae, ut veluti squamas toto corpore aemularentur. Prope uropygium, qua cauda exit, tuberculum habebat rotundum, subalbidum. Cauda non avium more ex plumis, sed carnosa ad instar quadruped<i>um, pilis nuda, sed in extremitate tamen floccum, qualis in illis conspici solet, obtinebat. Flocci color erat candicans. Cauda subcaerulea. Tibiae velut ocreis indutae erant. Iconem proxima pagina dabit.

But if some bird should be called as monstrous, it must be this rooster, which I observed some years ago alive in the palace of the most serene Grand Duke of Tuscany Francesco I de' Medici: it struck fear also into brave men with its terrifying aspect. Its head was not adorned with a fleshy comb as in ordinary roosters, and nor were its wattles fleshy, but they were made just as by feathers almost similar to the crests of the soldiers with which they decorate helmets. On the front it had two feathers, or rather two erect quills of feathers (for they were naked), as if they were two horns; likewise it had other two quills at both sides of the beak near the nostrils but showing some very thin feathers as if they were bristles, and another quill at the neck, adorned at the top by bristles with almost the same characteristics. The color of the whole body was just about blackish, but the roots of the feathers were white, however the feathers had such a structure that they resembled scales on the entire body. Near the rump, where the tail grows forth, it had a small round and whitish tubercle. The tail was not made of feathers as in birds, but it was fleshy as that of quadrupeds, devoid of hair, but at its top it had nevertheless a flock as usually can be observed in them. The color of the flock was verging to white. The tail was pale blue. The legs were covered as by leggings. The following page will give its picture.