Cockatrice

Behavior: Cockatrice are highly territorial creatures and will attack one another without hesitation except during their mating season in the spring. With specialized toxin glands in the throat, these nasty creatures are able to infuse the air they inhale during a deep breath with an extremely aggressive and volatile poison that causes hemorrhaging in the blood vessels of most biological beings that inhale it. The victims of these cruel beasts experience internal bleeding along with bleeding from literally every orifice while violently choking on their own blood as the toxic air wreaks havoc on their body. Cockatrice are burrowers, much unlike the common belief of them nesting like the common chicken. Never bringing prey into their den, the tell-tale sign of a "cock-hole" as some forest residents call it, is the carelessly strewn carcasses and bones of unlucky prey around the mouths of their homes. Should their breath not work against an adversary or prey item, they will immediately lunge with their razor sharp, hooked talons and attempt to tear away flesh and muscle without mercy while biting viciously.

Details: Cockatrice have a horrible sense of smell and hearing due to the constant exposure of their own breath and exceptionally high-pitched vocalizations. Some compare the screams and cries of these fowl things to that of a banshee. There is also rumor that the simplest way to thwart a cockatrice attack is with a mirror, playing on the inherently territorial behavior of the monsters they are said to attack their kin before anything else.(edited)