BOOK VIII.] History of Nature. 41 



which is produced in the Province of Cyrenaica, and is not 

 above twelve Fingers' Breadth long ; with a white Spot on 

 the Head, as if distinguished with a Diadem : with his Hiss 

 he driveth away other Serpents ; he rnoveth not his Body 

 forward by multiplied Windings like other Serpents, but he 

 goeth with Half his Body upright and aloft from the Ground; 

 he killeth all Shrubs not only that he toucheth, but that he 

 breatheth upon ; he burns up Herbs, and breaketh the Stones; 

 so great is his Power for Mischief! It is received for a Truth, 

 that one of them being killed with a Larice by a Man on 



Ann say, in answer to Richard's observation on her eyes : " Would they 

 were basilisk's, to strike thee dead ! " Its touch was also said to cause the 

 flesh to fall from the bones of the animal with which it came in contact. 

 The Basilisk was a wingless dragon, and derived its name from bearing on 

 its head the figure of a crown. The Egyptians believed it was produced 

 from the egg of the ibis, and some, more modern, from the egg of the 

 common cock ; and, strange as it may appear, the latter supposition may 

 explain much of the superstition regarding it. It is now known that, 

 from some change in the structure and action of the ovary, a hen some- 

 times assumes the plumage of a cock ; as is the case also with other galli- 

 naceous fowls, and even the duck. The final result is barrenness ; but 

 previous to this an egg may be produced, that is unnatural in its size and 

 contents ; and such a one is figured by Aldrovandus, and copied from 

 him by Ruysch (Table of Serpents, X.). Such an egg resembles the 

 produce of some serpents, and the latter might be easily mistaken for the 

 former. The egg of a snake may be often found on a dung-heap, over 

 which a fowl may roost ; and an individual who had seen an egg from 

 such a transformed fowl, might mistake a snake's egg for it, and watch it 

 to its hatching. Hens also sometimes lay soft eggs (without a shell), and 

 when they do so, as wanting the firmness natural to it, the egg escapes 

 from them when on the perch, without the consciousness of laying. The 

 Editor has known such eggs to fall on the dungheap below ; and when 

 so, it would not be easy to distinguish them from those laid by snakes in 

 the same place. An egg so laid produces nothing living ; but the uncer- 

 tainty attending it, especially if laid by a hen in a condition of trans- 

 formed plumage, in the same place with those deposited by a snake, would 

 be a sufficient foundation for all the superstition attending it. The eggs 

 of the Basilisk, and their liability to be mistaken for those which were 

 wholesome, are referred to by the prophet Isaiah, lix. 5. Ruysch 

 thinks that the cobra da capella, or hooded snake, is one of the ser- 

 pents that have been called the Basilisk, or the royal serpent. Wern. 

 Club. 



