Licetus, writing in 1634, and Zahn, in 1696, give the accompanying picture of a monster born at Ravenna in
1511 or 1512. It had a horn on the top of its head, two wings, was without arms, and only one leg like that of a bird of prey. It had an eye in its knee, and was of both sexes. It had the face and body of a man, except in the lower part, which was covered with feathers.
Marcellus Palonius Romanus made some Latin verses upon this prodigy, which may be thus rendered into English:—
A Monster strange in fable, and deform
Still more in fact; sailing with swiftest wing,
He threatens double slaughter, and converts
To thy fell ruin, flames of living fire.
Of double sex, it spares no sex, alike
With kindred blood it fills th’ Æmathian plain;