Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1895 — NORTHERN INDIANA FREAKS. [ARTICLE]

NORTHERN INDIANA FREAKS.

Some Extraordinary Products From Nature's LaboratoriesAlbert Martin, residing near the Fulton county line, in Cass county, has a Plymouth Rock hen which has , not been laying for some time. Re> l cently she went on the nest, and the family was greatly astonished tc discover, when she left it shortlj afterward, that she had a live chick. Only a few bits of broken shell were about the head of the chick, which was still wet. The supposition is that the egg, in some manner retarded in its progress, was held until the germ developed and proceeded to the stage of incubation. So far as known, this is the first case of the kind on record. Another remarkable lusus naturae is that of a pig owned by Frederick Shipman, of Pulaski county, which was born recently with its tail directly in the middle of its forehead and its nostrils in the side of its snout, like a duck. Unfortunately, its mother lay upon it and smothered it the second night after its arrival, or it might have proved a valuable acquisition for some museum. John Wilds, a well-known farmer, who lives north of Logansport, had a lamb, borne by one of his ewes, which weighed at birth almost twenty pounds. The extraordinary size of the animal may«be appreciated from the fact that the ordinary lamb weighs at birth about five or six pounds, while nine or ten pounds is considered quitg remarkable.