WATCH OUT FOR THE COCKATRICE TUSCAN DUDES

A particularly groovy type of dragon is the cockatrice, which according to Richard F in Dragons: More than a Myth? has a particularly peculiar genesis:

Of all dragonkind, The Basilisk is probably the most arcane. Its genesis involved a series of events so unlikely that, (luckily for man), they conspired only rarely to create one of these baleful monsters. It was believed that occasionally - in old age - a rooster could lay an egg! If such an uncommon-egg were to be incubated by a snake or toad, then a basilisk would hatch out - to bring death into the world!

The Basilisk is one of the smallest of the dragon-tribe but one of the most lethal! Its death-dealing powers came not from fiery-breath or tooth and claw but from its withering-glare. Any creature that caught the eyes of the basilisk, would fall dead from the uncanny-power of its vision. There was but one exception to this - one animal that could withstand this `look of death`. That animal was the weasel! It was believed that God never created a bane, without creating some cure for it, (like the stinging-nettle and the dock-leaf). Ergo, even The Basilisk could be tackled by someone who knew its weaknesses. The monster’s own gaze was as lethal to itself as to any other creature. Hence, its own reflection would kill it stone-dead! Equally - for some cryptic-reason - the sound of a cock-crowing at dawn would also kill The Basilisk.

These monsters came in a variety of shapes. They first appeared in The Bestiaries of the Dark-Ages. It was described as a tiny-serpent about a foot in length, bearing a crown or crest upon its head to denote it as The King of Serpents. The deserts of North-Africa and The Middle-East were reputed to have been created by basilisks, whose glare was so terrible that all vegetation withered under it, and even solid-rocks were split and sundered into sand.

Later reports of basilisks came in from Europe. As the centuries passed, The Basilisk’s form changed. Sometimes it was portrayed as a lizard with a rooster’s head, or as a large lizard with six legs and a crown upon its head. The commonest form that these later basilisks took, was that of a huge-rooster with the tail of a serpent or a lizard. Sometimes these beasts sported horns or antlers. In this form they were known as The Cockatrice.

Then extrapolating information from THIS BLOG by Corinna, the good folk of Tuscany had better beware...