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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Tuesday, June 09, 2009

MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: The Herring Hog

Richard Muirhead is an old friend of the CFZ. I have been friends with him for 40 years now, since we were kids together in Hong Kong. He is undoubtedly one of the two best researchers I have ever met; he and Nigel Wright both have what Charlie Fort would have no doubt called a wild talent; a talent for going into a library, unearthing a stack of old newspapers, and coming back with some hitherto overlooked gem of arcane knowledge. Twice a week he wanders into the Macclesfield Public Library and comes out with enough material for a blog post..

Dear folks

In one of those strange coincidences,as I was planning today`s blog,Jon drew my attention to Mike Hallowell`s contribution of June 5th which mentioned The Great Herring Catch of September 1807 in his part of the world.

The coincidence lies in the fact that a few weeks ago whilst in one of my favourites haunts (other than the local karaoke bar!) the Newspaper Library in north London I came across a story which was indexed as being about `The Herring Hog`. This was in the `Dumfries and Galloway Saturday Standard` of October 30th 1909 (see accompanying illustration).

It was doubly rewarding, I thought,”herring hog,what`s this a new type of cryptid?” and also, my ancestors were Scottish. But alas, on doing a Google search on `herring hog` I found out that this is in reality the common porpoise of the Atlantic and Pacific(1) So, it`s always best to check when coming across a possible new cryptid.

REFERENCE

1. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/herring+hog

I have two items for sale which may also be available for viewing or sale on the Internet, I haven`t checked. First come first served!

a) Amphipacifica Vol 1 Suppl. 1 An account of Cadborosaurus willsi,a new genus,new species,a large aquatic reptile from the Pacific coast of North America. £3 I will pay postage

b) Porcupine! Newsletter of the Department of Ecology and Biodiversity,Hong Kong University. No.15 Dec.1996. £3. I will pay postage.

Wanted. Fortean Studies. Offers please. And that issue of Fortean Times (1980s?) which featured a female alien in a hollow vessel on the front cover.

Thanks.

Best wishes,


Richard Muirhead

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