Sally Shelton writes:
 
        My Esteemed Colleague John Simmons and I have been batting around an
        idea for years on the origin and development of grotesques in natural
        history, by which we specifically mean the use of taxidermy or other
        techniques to create fake creatures out of real parts.
        Jackalopes are the most benign...
 
Wall Drug (Wall, SD) is famed for jackalopes, though there is a town
(Douglas, Arizona, comes drifting up from the corners of my memory,
but I may be completely wrong) that claims to be the home of the jackalope.
I remember seeing - either at Wall Drug or in a bar Out West - the rear
ends of several amimals (racoons, etc.), mounted, with teeth in their
rectums and eyes on their cheeks (if quardupeds can be said to have
cheeks).  I once had a co-worker who had an especially grotesque ash tray
that featured an mounted squirrel contorted into a furry golfer, and I think
such things my be found at "finer" *ahem* Midwestern taxidermy shops.
 
The Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis, would probably be a great source
of information on the likes of the Feeji Mermaid and other hoaxes.
 
 
 
 
--
Bob Rogers            Internet:  [log in to unmask]
Instrumental, Inc.    GEnie:     R.C.ROGERS
Minneapolis, MN       Phone:     612-920-6188