User with this ability either is or can transform into Cockatrice (Old French cocatris, from medieval Latin calcatrix, a translation of the Greek ichneumon, meaning tracker), essentially a two-legged dragon or serpent-like creature with a cock's head and varying levels of other avian features, such as wings. It has the reputed ability to kill people by either looking at them — "the death-darting eye of Cockatrice" — touching them, or sometimes breathing on them.