ODD FREAK OF NATURE,

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3324, 16 September 1911, Page 3

ODD FREAK OF NATURE,

OALF HAD MOUTH OF BONE MOSAIC. A three-months-old calf, having the roof of its mouth and the interior surface of its under jaw inset with quadrilateral and hexagonal pieces of bone in the pattern of perfect mosaic work, was killed the other day at San Rafael. U.S., by John Bairun, who runs a dairy at Point San Pedro, and. now the owner of the freak of. nature is bemoaning the lack of foresight that permitted him to destroy an animal which, he believes he could have sold at a circus at a'high figure. No mural designs executed by the ancient Moors could be more regular in its information than is the bony pattern that has had its growth in the calf’s mouth, in nine rows of evently formed blochs of bone. In eight of these rows the pieces of hone are hexagonal. while the ninth row, extending over the ridge of the mouth and evenly dividing the other rows, contains larger four-sided fragments. The lower jaw is similarly inlaid, but under the tongue the bone mosaic is of a translucent, pinkish hue. h The calf was killed to be. sold as veal, and it was not until it was being quartered that the ranch hands discovered the peculiar formation in' the mouth. The head was preserved and is now in the possession of Marty Johansen:of San Raefel, who says that-he is going to send it to the curator of the museum at the State University.