Weird Bird

[Richyboyo]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=661786204020973&set=p.661786204020973&type=3

The Bourbon news., July 21, 1922,

 

[kamalktk]

link does not work for me.

 

[oldrover]

Nor me.

 

[Coal]

Nor me.

Or me

 

[Shady]

Same here, it wants me to log onto farcebook, I no do that

 

[oldrover]

Same here, it wants me to log onto farcebook, I no do that

I'm logged in but still nothing.

 

[Richyboyo]

Sorry about that, I`ll try and copy the actual story

 

[Richyboyo]

LO!

 

[Richyboyo]

Please join my Mystery Bird Reports group on Facebook.

 

[oldrover]

Please join my Mystery Bird Reports group on Facebook.

I think I am in that group.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Your original citation is from The Bourbon News on July 21. The image you posted cites the Carlisle Mercury - a smaller Kentucky newspaper. Both newspapers were published in northern Kentucky.

Given the summer timeframe ... With the sole exception of the reference to a 'pouch', it could simply have been an actual bat:

... In May or June the females congregate in large colonies and give birth. Most species bear only a single young per litter, but others may have two, three, or even four. The female hangs head up as the young is born, feet first. She catches and holds the new born in the pouch formed by the interfemoral membrane. The baby bat, already large and well developed, crawls to the mother's nipples, attaches itself and feeds. In the evening when the mother forages for food, she may, for the first few days, carry the young with her.

SOURCE: https://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/batfacts.htm (Smithsonian; 'Bat Facts')

Bats have a pair of thoracic nipples. In some bat species, there's an additional pair of 'pubic nipples' anterior to the vagina. These pubic teats provide latch-on points for baby bats to affix themselves upside down for carrying by 'mom-bat' (not to be confused with 'wombat' ... ).

For more on bat nipples (a phrase I never dreamed I'd ever be Googling ... ), here's a direct link to the 1993 paper considered the definitive resource on the subject:

http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bits...dfSource/nov/N3077.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

 

[EnolaGaia]

Alternatively - and playing off the allusion to wombats - there are 6 species of gliding marsupial mammals indigenous to Australasia (genus Petaurus). All are called 'gliders'. Their marsupial nature would presumably explain pouch with young, and the presence of patagia (gliding animals' skin flaps used as 'wings') rather than full-blown wing structures might explain the description that extends no farther than 'resembling a bat'.

I don't know how one of these gliders could have made its way to Kentucky, but it's conceivable it was brought from Australasia as a pet or curiosity.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Finally ... I can find mentions of birds carrying eggs in their beaks and young ones on their backs or between their legs, but I haven't located any mention of birds with thoracic pouches, much less any toting young ones there.

Some aquatic birds are alleged to be able to scoop up chicks beneath their wings and carry them (on foot; walking).

The newspaper article says nothing to indicate the mystery 'bird' creature was ever observed flying with the young ones.

 

[henry]

is there a photo

 

[EnolaGaia]

is there a photo

No. The article as illustrated above is all there is. It appears on p. 6 of the Bourbon News for July 21, 1922. The full page can be viewed (as a PDF file) at:

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86069873/1922-07-21/ed-1/seq-6.pdf

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Thanks for posting the link. Sounds very like a bat having problems giving birth.

BTW love the advert to the right of the page that suggests only men would ever need to purchase tyres!

 

[Richyboyo]

Your original citation is from The Bourbon News on July 21. The image you posted cites the Carlisle Mercury - a smaller Kentucky newspaper. Both newspapers were published in northern Kentucky.

Given the summer timeframe ... With the sole exception of the reference to a 'pouch', it could simply have been an actual bat:



SOURCE: https://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/batfacts.htm (Smithsonian; 'Bat Facts')

Bats have a pair of thoracic nipples. In some bat species, there's an additional pair of 'pubic nipples' anterior to the vagina. These pubic teats provide latch-on points for baby bats to affix themselves upside down for carrying by 'mom-bat' (not to be confused with 'wombat' ... ).

For more on bat nipples (a phrase I never dreamed I'd ever be Googling ... ), here's a direct link to the 1993 paper considered the definitive resource on the subject:

http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bits...dfSource/nov/N3077.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

 

[Richyboyo]

Thanks for all this info folks,coming up in a few seconds,a very weird toad!