C.

C

Gallina est tardi volatus, Albertus. Non volax est, et uropygium, quo volatus dirigitur, ineptum [383] habet, ut in B. retuli. ¶ Pulvere impendio delectatur, in quo sese volutando quodammodo scabit, Grapaldus. Gallina pulveratrix est, ut reliquae aves non altivolae, Aristot. Dixit Ephesius Heraclitus sues coeno lavari, velut co<ho>rtales aves pulvere aut cinere, siquidem hisce rebus plumam pinnasque emundari. ¶ Solum hoc volucrum genus coelum crebro aspicit, Plinius[1].

The hen has a slow flight, Albertus Magnus. She is not a flyer, and has an unfitting rump by which is steered the flight, as I reported in the paragraph B. ¶ She takes a lot of pleasure from dust, and while turning over in it, so to speak, she scratches herself, Francesco Mario Grapaldi. The hen is a dust's lover as the other birds which don't fly aloft, Aristotle. Heraclitus of Ephesus said that swine wash with mud, as courtyard birds are doing  with dust or ash, since with these materials they clean feathers and pens. ¶ Only this kind of birds looks often at sky, Pliny.

¶ Gallinaceis maribus tantum cantus datus est, Aristot. Sed et gallinae interdum cum gallos vicere cucur<r>ire solent, Idem. Gallos gallinaceos in eo loco sic assidue canere coepisse, Cicero I de divinat.[2] Canorum animal gallus gallinaceus, Ibid.[3] Cantant ante lucem galli, Ibid. Graeci autem ᾄδειν, id est canere, de gallinaceis dicunt: et quandoque κοκκύζειν (cui simile est apud Latinos verbum cucurrire) de quo plura scripsi in Cuculo a. Vide infra in H.c. Cucurrire solet gallus, gallina gracillat, Author Philomelae. Elisa vox in illum sonum erumpit, cui Graeci κλωσμόν nomen ab immaturo gallorum (forte pullorum gallinaceorum) cantu dederunt, Quintilianus[4]. est et κλωγμός sonus quidam[5]. Quinetiam gallum nocte explaudentibus alis | Auroram clara consuetum voce vocare, Lucretius[6]. Gallos vigiles nostros excitandis in opera mortalibus, rumpendoque somno natura genuit. Norunt {sydera} <sidera>, et ternas distinguunt horas interdiu cantu. cum Sole eunt cubitum, quartaque castrensi vigilia (id est hora tertia post mediam noctem, Vegetius lib. 3.) ad curas laboremque revocant. nec Solis ortum incautis patiuntur obrepere, diemque venientem nunciant cantu, ipsum vero cantum plausu laterum, Plinius[7]. Gallus diei nuncius, horas noctis discutit, et demum vocem exhortationis emittit, cumque cantus edere parat, prius alas excutit, ac seipsum feriens vigilantiorem reddit, Gregorius in Moralibus.

Only the song has been given to the roosters, Aristotle. But sometimes also the hens are accustomed to crow when overcame the roosters, still Aristotle. The roosters in that place - near Lebadia - started to crow with so much insistence, Cicero in the 1^st book of De divinatione. The rooster is a singing animal, in the same treatise. The roosters crow before the day comes, in the same paragraph. Really the Greeks apropos of the roosters say áidein, that is, to sing: and sometimes kokkýzein (which among Latins sounds like the verb cucurrire - to do a cock-a-doodle-doo) on which I wrote quite a lot apropos of the cuckoo paragraph a. See below in the paragraph H.c. The rooster is accustomed to do a cock-a-doodle-doo, the hen lets out the voice of broody hen, the author of Philomela: The broken voice bursts out in that sound the Greeks named kløsmós - to crack - from the immature song of the roosters (perhaps of young roosters), Quintilian. Also kløgmós is a kind of sound. Rather, also the rooster sending away the night with wings | is accustomed to call the sunrise with shrill voice, Lucretius. Nature created the roosters, our sentinels, to recall the mortals to the job and to interrupt the sleep. They know the stars and are able to distinguish with the song, in the space of the day, periods of three hours each. They go to sleep with the sun and at fourth guard shift (that is, at three o'clock after midnight, Vegetius, 3^rd book) they recall us to occupations and job. And they don't allow the rising sun to catch us unawares, and they announce with the song that the day is coming, and their song itself is announced by flapping their wings, Pliny. The rooster, messenger of the day, dispels the hours of the night, and finally he utters the voice of the exhortation, and when he is about to utter the songs, in first place he flaps the wings, and striking himself makes himself more vigilant, Gregorius Magnus in Moralia.

Ex gallis qui animosi sunt, vocem {a}edunt graviorem, Aristot. in Physiogn.[8] Nocte profunda cantat validius, et matutino levius. cantus enim cum vento fertur, et antequam aestimari possit longius auditur, Obscurus de nat. rerum. Amant et hunc cantorem milites, quia in castris illis vice horarii gnomonici est. Nam cum statis noctis horis vigilias commutare coguntur, hoc indice noctis intervalla discriminant. Crepusculo cubitum eunt, tribus ante noctis statum (id est ante mediam noctem) horis cantant. medio eiusdem spatio vocem iterant. tribus itidem ab intempesta nocte horis, iterum cantil{l}ant: quod tempus ob id gallicinium appellatur. Itaque bellicis curribus aliquando singulis singulos gallos alligant, Gyb. Longolius. Sigismundus Liber[9] Baro in descriptione itineris sui per Moscoviam, 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[10]. Scribit in Divinationibus[11] M. Cicero, Democritum hisce ferme causam adortum explicare, cur ante lucem concinant galli. Depulso (inquit) <de pectore> et in omne corpus diviso ac {modificato} <mitificato> cibo, cantus {a}edunt quiete satiati. Qui quidem, ut ait Ennius[12], silentio noctis favent {faucibus, rursum} <faucibus russis> cantu plausuque premunt alas.

Among the roosters, the brave ones utter a deeper voice, Aristotle in Physiognomonica. In the depths of the night he sings more strongly, and at morning more softly. In fact the song is transported with the wind, and it is heard rather far away sooner than it could be supposed, unknown author of natural things. The soldiers love also this cantor, since for them, when they are in the camps, he has the same role of a gnomon clock. In fact, when at fixed hours of the night they have to change guards, they divide nighttime intervals with this signal. They go to roost at twilight, they sing three hours before the night began (that is, before midnight). Midway this nighttime interval they reiterate the song. And they sing softly also three hours from the beginning of night's dead: and it's why this moment is said gallicinium - the dawn. Therefore they sometimes tie a rooster to each war chariot, Gisbert Longolius. Sigismund, Baron of Herberstein, in the description of his trip through Moscow says: a Muscovite rooster, perched on a chariot according to the German custom, and which was about to die at any moment because of the cold, a servant, after having cut off quickly the frozen comb, not only in this way saved it, but also got that, lifted up suddenly the neck, it started singing, while we were full of amazement. Cicero writes in De divinatione that Democritus tried to explain more or less with these words why the roosters sing before the dawn. He says: after they removed from the breast - from the crop - and divided and made the food become tender, they utter the songs after having satisfied themselves with the rest. And they, as Ennius says, in the silence of the night show approval uttering their song through the red jaws and applaud flapping the wings.

Sunt vero qui (huius sententiae est Ambrosius Leo Nolanus, cuius verba copiosius recitat Erasmus in proverbio, Priusquam gallus iterum cecinerit[13]) salacissimae avitii eius naturae acceptum referri astruant oportere eventum eiusmodi. Nam cantu significari Veneris appetentiam, inde est argumentum evidens, quod antequam usui Venereo sufficiant, conticescunt. Esse porro in more avibus nonnullis, ut proclivitatem et lubentiam ad initium quolibet praeeant cantu, quum alibi comprobat Plinius, tum ait[14], Perdices foeminas concipere supervolantium afflatu, saepe voce tantum audita masculi. Contingere autem gallinaceis, quod fere caeteris usu venire compertum est, ut peracto cibo, refecto per quietem corpore, ac inde maxime vegeto, libidinis titillentur pruritu. Intervulsus autem somnus, ac identidem repetitus, cantus frequentiae causam facile suggesserit, Caelius. Gallus si rarum esset animal, non solum forma sed cantu admiratione dignissimum esset. Exultat voce, proculque ea exauditur: et nocte etiam ad mille atque amplius passus. Cum expergiscitur a cibo canit, plerunque tamen Sole meridiante mediaque nocte, ac cum radii primum auroram effingere incipiunt. Robur igitur Solis sequitur, et in octo partes totum dividit diem naturalem, non tamen oriente Sole, sed cum accedit ad aurorae terminos, sic et ante meridiem, Cardanus lib. 10. de Subtilitate. Galli antelucano tempore canunt, sive ut fertur, naturali quodam sensu Solis ad nos se convertentis ceu deum salutantes impulsi, sive caliditate suae naturae et motus sibique sumendi desiderio, Heliodorus lib. 1. Aethiopicorum. Gallum album mensi sacrum, utpote horarum nuncium, credidit Pythagoras. In locis ubi coeli status uvidus est, gallos non cantare Theophrastus[15] inquit, Aelianus[16]. Gallinaceis vox est cum vicere, Aristot. Aliis in pugna vox, ut coturnicibus: aliis ante pugnam, ut perdicibus: aliis cum vicere, ut gallinaceis. iisdem sua maribus, Plin.[17]

In truth there are some (Ambrogio Leone from Nola is of this opinion, whose words Erasmus from Rotterdam quotes rather abundantly in the proverb Before the rooster has sung a second time) who would assert that such a result is due to the libidinous nature of this bird. In fact with the song the sexual desire is revealed, from which comes the evident proof that, before devoting themselves to the sexual activity, they keep silent. Furthermore it's belonging to the behavior of quite a lot of birds to anticipate with whatever song the propensity and the pleasure for mating, since in another passage Pliny is confirming this when saying that female partridges conceive through the breath of the males flying over them, often after having only heard the voice of the male. To the roosters it happens what by experience is well-known to happen in almost all other birds, that is, after the food has been digested and the body has been refreshed with rest, and being therefore very vigorous, they are titillated by the itch of sexual desire. The sleep interrupted and as many times resumed, would easily point out the reason of the frequency of the song, Lodovico Ricchieri. The rooster, if he were a rare animal, he would be remarkably worthy of admiration not only for his look but also for his song. He rejoices by his voice, which is heard from far away, and at night also at the distance of a mile and more. When he wakes up to eat, he sings, however mainly in the afternoon and at half of the night, and when the rays of the sun barely begin to paint the sunrise. Therefore he goes hand in hand with the energy of the sun, and divides in eight parts the natural day, however not when the sun rises, but when it is approaching to the end of sunrise, and so also before midday, Gerolamo Cardano, 10^th book of De subtilitate. The roosters sing at dawn, both, as they say, for a certain faculty in perceiving the sun coming back to us, either compelled to greet the god – sun, or because of the heat of its nature and movement and the desire of take possession of it, Heliodorus of Emesa in the 1^st book of Ethiopians. Pythagoras believed that the white rooster is sacred to the month, since he is messenger of the hours. Theophrastus says that in the places where the climate is damp the roosters don't sing, Aelian. The roosters have voice when have won, Aristotle. Some has voice during the fight as quails: others before the fight as partridges: others when have won, as the roosters. In them the voice is proper of males, Pliny.

¶ Gallina unguibus scalpendo victum quaerit, ad quem inventum pullos vocat, Albert. Chondros[18], (id est alica vel far) dabatur in cibo gallinaceis, Athenaeus circa finem lib. 3. Piscibus etiam in cibo gaudent. Canes et gallinae humano stercore vescuntur, Brasavolus. Plura de cibis quibus ali ac saginari genus gallinaceum solet, leges in Gallina E. item in Capo. Veterum sententia frequens fuisse videtur, gallo vim omnia quae deglutierit conficiendi adesse. Propterea in Vespis[19] Aristophanes, Ἀλεκτρυόνος μ’ἔφασκε κοιλίαν ἔχειν. id est, Galli me ventrem habere dictitabat. Id vero enarrantes Grammatici, Galli (inquiunt) calore ventris ferventissimo cuncta percoquunt, Caelius. Gallinae calida natura praeditae sunt. nam et venena conficiunt, et aridissima quaeque semina consumunt. et nonnunquam arenas lapillosque ingluvie sua devoratos dissolvunt, Dioscor.[20]

¶ The hen when scratching with toenails is looking for food, and when found it she calls her chicks, Albertus Magnus. The chóndros (that is the emmer) was given as food to chickens, Athenaeus toward the end of the III book. They are also delighted with fishes as food. Dogs and hens feed on human dung, Antonio Brasavola. In the paragraph E about the hen you can read quite a lot of things concerning the foods by which is usually fed and fattened up the gallinaceous genus. The same in the chapter regarding the capon. It seems that was an usual axiom of ancients the fact that the rooster was able in mincing what swallowed. Thus Aristophanes in Wasps writes: Alektryónos m’éphaske koilían échein. That is: He was saying that I had a rooster's stomach. In truth the grammarians when doing a commentary of this verse they say: The roosters digest every thing perfectly with the enormous heat of the stomach, Lodovico Ricchieri. The hens are endowed with a warm nature. In fact they also destroy the poisons and destroy whatever seed as far as dry. And sometimes with the stomach they dissolve the grains of sand and little stones, Dioscorides.