Taxidermy Swoose
by F.E. Gunn
by F.E. Gunn
Size: Measures approx. 114cm x 82cm x 44cm
Description: This case is conclusive evidence of a rare event in nature, a hybrid between a Swan and a Goose. As far as we know it is the only stuffed example in existence. Label reads: SWAN & GOOSE HYBRID. HATCHED APRIL 1910. DIED MAY 1924. Beeston Priory. Sheringham.
The taxidermist responsible for this important undertaking was the celebrated Norfolk taxidermist Frederick Ernest Gunn (1869-1950). His trade label can be found verso.
From the Zoologist monthly journal:
Swan x Goose Hybrid.
"There is at present living, at a farmhouse near Cromer, a hybrid Swan. This anomalous bird, which is the produce of a male Mute Swan and a female domestic Goose, both of them the property of Mrs. A. T. Eeynolds, of Beeston Priory, was hatched in April, 1910. Another was hatched with it, which unfortunately was subsequently killed; there being no gander on the place their parentage is apparently beyond dispute. As will be seen from one of the photographs which Mrs. Eeynolds has had taken of it, this hybrid is more like a Swan than a Goose in shape, and its long neck, which at times it doubles up in Swan fashion, contributes to the similarity. In colouring it rather more resembles the Goose (cf. Plate III.)."
Also from the daily mail in 1920:
"A bird prodigy of evil and hybrid character is the despair of a Norfolk farm. It rejoices in the name of the 'swoose', a portmanteau word indicating its origin, for its father was a swan and its mother a goose!"