Variations: Saltipiscator falcorostratus (Cox)
Boundary Pond in Maine, near the Canadian border, is the only spot where Billdads live. These creatures are beaver-sized with long kangaroo-like back legs and short forelegs. The paws are webbed and the beak is strong and hawk-like. The powerful tail is large and flattened, like a beaver’s.
The first hint that a billdad is about is a distinct sound, like a paddle hitting the water. This is caused by the billdad’s method of fishing, which consists of jumping above a surfacing fish and smacking it hard with its flat tail. Adult males can cover over sixty yards in a single leap. The stunned fish can then be collected and eaten at leisure.
The retiring billdads are usually heard and not seen. They are left alone by lumberjacks – and with good reason. The only man known to have eaten billdad meat, the late Bill Murphy, suffered odd symptoms after tasting it. He ran screaming out of the mess hall and leaped over the lake just like a billdad. Alas, he could not swim like one.
Billdad has been off the menu since.
References
Cox, W. T. (1910) Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods with a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts. Judd and Detweiler, Washington D. C.
A Book of Creatures 
You really nailed the illustration on this one! Everything from the position to concept (I adore the ears!), it really has volume and character! Kudos to you! (Or however people are saying it nowadays …)
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Thanks :>
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I was inspired mainly by the old Charles Knight Trachodon paintings… not sure if that’s appropriate for the critter, but that’s what I had in mind. Something floppy and goofy.
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I misread “Bill Murphy” as “Bill Murray,” as in the actor from Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, and I was like, “Wow, that’s oddly recent, and not how I was expecting to find out a famous actor had died,” and then I read slightly further in the sentence and went back and looked a second time.
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RIP Bill Murray
“He ate a weird pond critter and died”
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Do you think people would try to domesticate these things?
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Billdads aren’t malicious like other FCs, they just… exist. Long as you don’t eat them you should be fine (and people don’t usually eat their pets). That said they may slap you upside the head from time to time.
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He looks so shy.. 😀
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He kinda looks like he’s going to try to warn Harry Potter about the Chamber of Secrets.
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Oh noooo
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Sounds delicious.
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Wonderful work on this creature, although I don’t remember seeing the Billdad having a lack of fur like a Naked Molerat, but have some questions? Are all these Fearsome Critters including Mr. Billdad invented by William Cox or did Cox claimed to have seen these creatures in the Americas? And if anyone were to involve theses creatures the Billdad included, would be plagiarism even if giving credit to Mr. Cox
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It doesn’t mention them having fur or not, so your guess is as good as mine. As for your second question, nobody knows for sure, but fearsome critters are generally assumed to be folklore. Whether that is true or not, Cox’s book is in the public domain nowadays…
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But would it be plagiarism, if I involved the Billdad or any other fearsome critters in my projects, especially in one of my comics? It’s because I love these creatures and I want to give them the recognition they deserve?
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… no, it wouldn’t be plagiarism? Use them to your heart’s content.
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Thank you, I look forward to creating comics featuring creatures like Roperite, the Billdad, the Bunyip, the Nomori-Mushi and so many more
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Bipedal platypus with beak for cracking open walnuts
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