This formidable beast has an unique way of coming into being. It is hatched from an egg laid by a cock that has been exposed to some unusual nurturing at the hands of a frog until it hatches. This rare set of circumstance required to create a cockatrice may be the only thing that prevented wide spread devastation at the hands of the cockatrice and resulted in the creature's eventual near extinction. The cockatrice's abilities are varied and each one terrifying. They can eliminate an enemy by petrifying them, either with a glance or a brush of a feather or the less common tactic of breathing on them. Once the person as been turned to stone there is no saving them. The cockatrice can fly, and of course they have lethal claws and beak. There have been other powers rumored to be held by the cockatrice, such as ability to break stone and burn greenery with a trail of poison, but none of these have been consistently attributed to them and are generally the result of the witness' confusion of a cockatrice with it's opposite the basilisk or king of snakes. They share some common characteristics such as the ability to petrify but their differences are great as well, none more so than their origins which are precisely reversed. The basilisk is born of a snake egg hatched by a cock. Also in appearance, the basilisk being purely snake-like in form, the cockatrice having a most definite chicken-like form with hints of the reptilian. By far the most stunning commonality between these two creatures is their shared enemy. Both are vulnerable to weasels, the only animal immune to petrification. The cockatrice however has an additional bane, the crowing of a rooster, that which reminds it of its true parentage is instant death to a cockatrice. Historically some have also managed to escape petrification by the cockatrice by use of a mirror to reflect the cockatrice's deadly glance back upon itself, thereby petrifying the cockatrice. I would imagine though that should you encounter a cockatrice this method may or may not prove plausible in ensuring your survival, so please proceed with caution and bring a weasel.
