snorapp | That Unbeautiful Little Head of Yours

...'The rudimentary state of the right ovary in almost all species allows sex reversal from female to male to occure much more frequently than in vertebrate animals. The traditional English couplet: 'A whistling made, and a crowing hen, are fit for neither God nor Men', has its counterpart in the French, German and other languages. When the single functional ovary is obliterated by disease (or experimentally), the rudimentary tissue of the other often developes as an ovotestis, or even as a testis <...> Ir is claimed that ocassionally hens have changed sex completely and fertilized other hens. From pre-Christian times, men have regarded a hen's assumption of male plumage, and of an ability to crow, tread, and fight as a portent of disaster. The French said:

A hen that crows,
A priest that dances,
A woman who speaks Latin,
Never come to a beautiful end.'

A Text-Book of Zoology, Parker and Haswell, Vol. II.
London, MacMillan and Co. LTD, 1961