Carrier pigeons get all the glory as postal carriers, but we learn here that "chicken mail" required a self-addressed, stamped envelope.  From St. Nicholas magazine, 1900.

Here are two strange incarnations of tamed cockatrice-like animals, each partially equine.  The first appears in a child's nightmare (Punch, 1865).  The second is ridden by a knife-wielding adult in broad daylight (Punch, 1858).

Doctor Dolittle notwithstanding:

"So perhaps the answer is simply to collect all the facts, and then make a judgement. But is it possible to collect all the facts? You cannot, after all, talk to the chickens." —For Business Ethics (2005)

"A rooster flushed before either of us had any idea it was there."
—Steve Grooms, Modern Pheasant Hunting