Imitation, counterfeit, or what?

[Garson O'Toole]

Victor Steinbok wrote:
>>Jakelope and its ilk (bunnyip) seem to be the only case where
>>"fabrication" would be in order.

Joel S. Berson wrote:
> I'm quite sure there were many more fabricated live animals displayed
> in stationary or traveling zoos and sideshows in the 17th through
> 19th, if not also 20th, centuries, than the two above.

A couple years ago I posted about a "unicorn" exhibited by Ringling
Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in the 1980s. Here is a link to
a Chicago Tribune article discussing the topic:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-10-18/entertainment/8503110287_1_lancelot-ringling-brothers-animal

The existence of a one-horned creature was reported back in 1936 in
the Time magazine article below. It supposedly was created
(fabricated, mutilated, manipulated, synthesized) by transplanting the
horn buds of an animal so that they were adjacent. The resulting
animal grew a single fused horn. The following link only shows part of
the article to non-subscribers:

Citation: Science: Unicorn, Time, May. 04, 1936.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882648,00.html

Garson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org