|
Sir, to leave things out of a book, merely because people tell you it will not be believed, is meanness.
—Samuel Johnson
|
Note: Any claim that hybrids can actually be produced from this disparate and poorly documented cross would require confirmation from a specimen.
Old reports about rat-chicken hybrids have appeared in American newspapers. For example, the following notice about a rat-chicken hybrid appeared on the front page, column 5, of the April 15, 1881, issue of the Weekly Graphic, a newspaper published in Kirksville, Missouri (source):
The reverse configuration—that is, a chicken with the head of a rat—was described on page 4, column 2, of the April 17, 1915, issue of the Scott County Kicker, a newspaper published in Benton, Missouri (source):
Congenital blindness seems to be fairly frequent in distant hybrids, perhaps due to the disruption of ordinary developmental processes. Such hybrids are often born without eyes. Cyclopean births also appear to occur at elevated rates.
Related crosses:
Chicken × Mouse >>
Chicken × Gopher >>
Chicken × Rabbit >>
By the same author: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World, Oxford University Press (2006).
Most shared on Macroevolution.net: