# Talk:Cockatrice
Contents

1 death despite flying
2 monsters using cockatrice eggs
3 Self-polymorph with corpse
4 pick up with a bullwhip
5 Taste
6 deafness as defence
7 Messages section
8 Use as weapon in SLASH'EM

death despite flying
The article claims you don't turn to stone if you fly down a hole. However, that that just happened to me. "While falling, you touch the corpse...". Tjr 21:10, August 9, 2010 (UTC)

Actually it's just confusingly worded; testing it, you won't be stoned if you fly down stairs while burdened or worse (which would normally cause you to touch the corpse), but jumping down a hole does in fact kill you regardless.  I'll reword it, as I thought that was safe too. -Ion frigate 00:19, August 10, 2010 (UTC)
monsters using cockatrice eggs
Get hit by a thrown cockatrice egg (delayed if a monster threw it  -- How come they use eggs at all? I don't remember coming across anything like that in the code. --Tjr 14:25, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

It's at weapon.c, line 369: cockatrice eggs are the preferred ranged weapon for any monster who has them (and can use ranged weapons, of course).  --Ilmari Karonen 16:32, 6 May 2011 (UTC)
Self-polymorph with corpse
Why are ravens, crocodiles, and dragons in the list of forms unable to use a cockatrice corpse? None of these forms are able to wield any sort of weapon. -- Qazmlpok 16:52, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

I was lazy and hoping somebody would check that. I'm sorry. --Tjr 20:52, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
pick up with a bullwhip
From my reading of the source, a cockatrice corpse will not petrify you if you pick it up with a bullwhip: pickup.c, line 1309, apply.c, line 2174. However, the article explicitly claims the opposite. Why? Has somebody wizmoded this? (see also)--Tjr (talk) 08:36, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

Taste
NetHack 3.6.0 has them taste like chicken for stoning resistant or hallucinating heroes. Eating a corpse gives "This tastes just like chicken!" (followed by "you died" if you were just hallucinating, of course). The tin will also "It smells like chicken.". Which is interesting, because it means that random tins of cockatrice meat will no longer be a random monster and are always chicken, so it's "safe" to eat tins while hallucinating now. If you're sufficiently spoiled, at least. -- Qazmlpok (talk) 18:06, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

deafness as defence
Does being deaf make you safe from a cockatrice's attack? ··gracefool 💬 00:27, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

No. It won't offer any protection, you just won't hear the hissing. -- Qazmlpok (talk) 14:43, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
Messages section
There are a lot of messages associated with cockatrices. I stumbled across one I hadn't seen before, "You try to feel what is lying here on the floor. There are a few objects here. Including a cockatrice corpse, unfortunately." Should the page have a section that lists and details them? --Phol ende wodan (talk) 16:51, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

Use as weapon in SLASH'EM
Having just seen much valuable loot destroyed in Fort Ludios by grenades, a question came to mind.  If I whap a soldier with a rubber chicken, is the loot in his inventory protected from frag grenades?  I was there for the bullets more than the gold, and wonder if changing my tactics would get me more loot next time.  ——Emdoub (talk) 18:25, 24 September 2019 (UTC)