If you don't believe it, I don't care; but a good fellow, a man of good sense, ought always to believe what anybody tells him and whatever he sees in print.
—Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel
A mummified winged calf A fake?
Note: Any claim that hybrids can be produced from this highly disparate and very poorly documented cross would require genetic confirmation.
An ostensible cow-duck hybrid was reported in numerous American newspapers in 1889. For example, the following notice appeared in the Mitchell, South Dakota, Capital (Dec. 21, 1889, p. 2, col. 1):
A Gettysburg‡ druggist named Packer has on exhibition, preserved in alcohol, a monstrosity which is half duck and half calf, the head, neck and chest being those of a duck, while the rest of the body, legs and tail are of the bovine species. This rara avis-bovinus is the offspring of a cow belonging to Peter Anderson, of Sully County [South Dakota].
‡ Gettysburg is a city in Potter County, South Dakota, United States.
Wolterton. In a letter to anatomist Edward Tyson, dated December 18, 1706, and published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (vol. 25, pp. 2414-2415), Archibald Adams, an English physician describes a calf with wings birthed by a cow at Wolterton in Norfolk, England. It survived birth, he says, but was so severely injured during delivery that it soon died. A note appended to the article stated that the “skin of this calf is now in the Repository of the Royal Society in Gresham College.”
In addition, a report about a winged calf appeared in the Hurley, South Dakota, Turner County Herald (Mar. 10, 1893, p. 3, col. 7):
A peculiar freak of nature appeared at the farm of A. Chisholm, near Hecla [Brown County, northeastern South Dakota], the other day. It is a winged calf. The calf is a bright, frolicking one, perfect in every respect save that it has a wing growing from its body just back of the shoulder-blade. The wing is perfectly natural, being jointed to the body, then extending backwards in a natural position about six inches, at which point there is a joint allowing the outer extremity of the wing to drop downward and forward, forming an acute angle. A natural coat of hair covers the entire wing. Mr. Chisholm cannot account for this wonderful freak of nature, but says that during the early part of the season last summer his cattle were nearly driven from their pasture, which bordered the river, by the incessant coming and going of large flocks of wild geese.
Reports about the Hecla animal appeared in many American newspapers that year. A subsequent report says that it was being exhibited around the country.
A bit more information about this animal appeared in the Omaha, Nebraska, Daily Bee (May 22, 1893, p. 5, col. 4):
A great deal of curiosity has been aroused over the winged calf which was born in Brown County some months ago, and the owner has now decided to take it to Aberdeen [the seat of Brown County] May 19 and 20 for exhibition. The calf is healthy and growing, and the wings [sic] are said to be well developed. The question now is does it trace its pedigree to the cow that jumped over the moon?
Later that year, the Oakes, North Dakota, Weekly Republican, a newspaper published in (Jun. 16, 1893, p. 2, col. 4) noted that the Hecla winged calf had just been exhibited at Guelph, North Dakota, “on picnic day.”
An Oregon animal was also described as a calf with wings. A report about this creature appeared in the Albany, Oregon, Register (Jan. 6, 1872, p. 7, col. 2):
The Olympia [Washington] Tribune says that Mr. Joe Lammon of that place has recently seen in Oregon (don't say where) a handsome healthy calf, two weeks old, with a pair of wings, one on each shoulder, as large as those of a goose, natural in shape, but unfeathered.
What was perhaps the same animal is mentioned in the Albany, Oregon, State Rights Democrat (Jan. 19, 1872, p. 2, col. 5):
Oakland [Oregon] has an “angel calf.” Its wings crop out just behind the shoulders, are about the size of turkey wings and very much resemble a picked turkey wing, but are covered with hair.
A notice published that same year, presumably about the same animal appeared in the Columbia, Tennessee, Herald (Nov. 15, 1872, p. 1, col. 2):
A winged calf is on exhibition at the Oregon State Fair. The man who owns it is looking for a rise in veal.
There was another such animal supposedly born in Honesburg, Pennsylvania. A report about this creature appeared in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, Tribune (Jul. 5, 1895, p. 5, col. 2):
Honesdale, Pa., July 4.—One of Henry Bragger's cows recently gave birth to a creature that has the body and legs of a calf and the front feet of a goose, with toes and claws. It also has wings and has a bill. It has feathers on its head instead of hair. It bleats in the day like a calf and at night utters cries like a goose.
A mummified winged calf
Winged cow (Book of Kells, c. 800 AD)