[329] De hoc Gallo ad me scripsit Pompilius Tagliaferrus Parmensis inter praeclaros medicos haud infimus his verbis: Ad te mitto Galli monstrosi effigiem, etsi tamen in illo delineando pictor haud mihi satisfecerit. Sed scias velim, duo potissimum in hoc Gallo reperiri admiratione digna, quae in Gallinaceis, et Gallinis nostris visuntur minime. Primum, et praecipuum est, quod alarum pennae contrario, quam in aliis modo situantur, nam pars illarum prona, quae ex naturae praescripto in aliis interius vergit, in hoc exterior conspicitur,ita ut tota ala, penitus inversa videatur. Alterum notatu dignum existimo, quod cervicis plumulae caput versus cirri instar eriguntur; quorsum etiam tota cauda attolli conspicitur. Haec ille. Quae tamen de hoc Gallo commemorat, nec eius imago ad me missa, nec nostra icon satis exprimunt: quod pictoris imperitia factum fuisse eius verba ostendunt.

Pompilio Tagliaferro of Parma, not at all the lowest among illustrious physicians, wrote me about this rooster with the following words. I send you the picture of a monstrous rooster, although the painter has not at all satisfied me in portraying it. But I would like you to know that in this rooster there are two things particularly worthy of admiration and which in our roosters and hens are not met at all. The first thing, and the most important, is the fact that the feathers of the wings are arranged contrarily than in other chickens: for their bowl-shaped side, which as prescribed by nature in the other chickens is facing inwards, in this rooster is showing itself facing outwards, so that the whole wing appears quite inverted. I think noteworthy another thing: the small feathers of the neck are erect like ringlets towards the head, in whose direction also the whole tail seems to move. Thus far Tagliaferro. However neither the representation of this rooster which has been sent me, nor my reproduction are satisfactory expressing the things he is quoting about this rooster: his words show that this happened because of the unskilfulness of the painter.