THE CRAWFORD AVALANCHE — JANUARY 30, 1896
GIGANTIC FEATHERED CREATURE.
Elias Midkoff of Hamilton, Lincoln county, was in Charleston the other day and proposed to the State Historical and Antiquarian Society that if it would send him a taxidermist to Hamlin the society could secure a monster bird, of a kind never seen before by any one in West Virginia. The feathered monster is described by Mr. Midkoff, from measurements taken by himself and V. W. Adkins of Hamlin, who killed the bird at the mouth of Vannatters creek, with five bullets from his rifle, while hunting deer on Monday. The bird is 7 feet 4 inches from tip to tip, 4 feet from tip of bill to tip of tail, flat bill 4 inches long and 3 inches wide, somewhat similar to that of a duck; web feet, neck 19 inches long, and about 1½ inches through below the feathers; plumage dark brown, relieved on the wings and breast by light-blue shading. The bird when first seen was circling high in the air, but came down very quickly and alighted in the water, where Adkins got a good shot at it, crippling its wing. Adkins attempted to capture the strange fowl alive, but it was so vicious that he could not get near it without killing it, which required five bullets.—Baltimore American.
From— The Crawford Avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.), 30 Jan. 1896. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
