A cockatrice is a legendary creature about the size and shape of a dragon or wyvern, but in appearance resembling a giant rooster, with some lizard-like characteristics. It was supposed to be born from an egg laid by a cock (in the sense of a male chicken) and incubated by a toad or serpent.
Its reputed magical abilities include turning people to stone by either looking at them, touching them, or sometimes breathing on them, like a dragon breathing fire. The cockatrice is very similar (if not identical) to another legendary creature, the basilisk.
Its name may come from a folk etymology for crocodile.
Like the head of medusa, the cockatrice's powers of petrification are still effective after death. For example, as a creature in the roguelike game, NetHack, its petrification capabilities make it a particularly fearsome monster as well as a formidable weapon once slain.
