The Bare-fronted Hoodwink (''Dissimulatrix spuria'') was a hoax and satirical wastebasket

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

created by

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

M. F. M. Meiklejohn Matthew Fontaine Maury Meiklejohn (24 June 1913 – 14 May 1974) was an English professor of languages who held the Stevenson Chair for Italian studies at the University of Glasgow for twenty-five years. He was also a noted amateur ornithologist ...

. The Hoodwink has the ability to be "almost seen" or "almost captured". Bird watchers can easily identify this bird by its "blurred appearance and extremely rapid flight away from the observer." Meiklejohn claimed that the single species could easily account for every bird not completely sighted. Birdwatchers added this species to their list of birds to watch for, and amateurs seemed to sight the Hoodwink more often. On 1 April 1975, the bird was put on display at the

Royal Scottish Museum The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture. It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. The exhibit also included photos of blurry birds flying away. The bird was created using the head of a

carrion crow The carrion crow (''Corvus corone'') is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae, native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic. Taxonomy and systematics The carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus ...

, the body of a

plover Plovers ( , ) are members of a widely distributed group of wader, wading birds of subfamily Charadriinae. The term "plover" applies to all the members of the subfamily, though only about half of them include it in their name. Species lis ...

, and the feet of an unknown

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which i ...

. The bare front appeared to be

wax Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give lo ...

. Meiklejohn's paper was published in the scientific journal ''

Bird Notes The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment throu ...

'' in 1950. The paper was rather long and humorous, and he even claimed the genus to be descendant of an ancient species ''Paleodissimulatrix''.

References

Journalistic hoaxes Fictional birds Hoaxes in the United Kingdom 1950 in biology 1950s hoaxes Hoaxes in science Birdwatching {{legendary-creature-stub