Mouse × Chicken
Mammalian Hybrids
EUGENE M. MCCARTHY, PHD GENETICS, ΦΒΚ
|
What is not deemed miraculous when it first comes into knowledge? How many things are judged impossible before they actually occur?
—Pliny the Elder
Natural History, 7.1.7 |
A reconstruction of the creature described in the report quoted at left. Artist: E. M. McCarthy
Note: Any claim that hybrids can actually be produced from this disparate and poorly documented cross would require confirmation from a specimen.
The following notice about a mouse-chicken hybrid appeared on page 2, column 7, of the August 20, 1915, issue of the Essex County Herald, a newspaper published in Guildhall, Vermont (source):
Selectman George M. Rood, of Woodstock [Vermont], is showing a weird freak of animal life in the shape of a white mouse with a chicken’s head and bill. The thing was dead when found by Mrs. C. A. J. White in her hen yard, having been caught by a cat, and, therefore, must probably have had life. The body is that of a well-formed mouse with four feet and tail, and the head is that of a chicken with a well developed bill.
A combination of a chicken and a mouse? No doubt a timid creature indeed!
By the same author: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World, Oxford University Press (2006).
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