Miss Gertrude McFuzz

Miss Gertrude McFuzz is a fictitious character in:

• Dr. Seuss's homonymous short story Miss Gertrude McFuzz, in the book Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories
• the Broadway musical Seussical, which elaborates upon it. She is the largest female role.

In 'Seussical the Musical', Gertrude McFuzz is an awkward, determined little bird with a one-feather tail, of which she is very ashamed. In order to improve her appearance, and in the process win the heart of Horton the Elephant, Gertrude follows the advice of Mayzie la Bird and takes special pill-berries that allow her to grow more feathers on her tail. Horton, in his effort to find his lost clover, overlooks Gertrude's affections. Her pill-berry obsession grows out of control when she sprouts too many feathers and is unable to fly to Horton's rescue upon his capture by hunters. Near the end of the musical a once again single-feathered Gertrude returns to Horton, where he is imprisoned at the Circus McGurkus, to convey to him her true feelings and that she plucked out her beautiful tail in an effort to save him and return to him his clover that she had found after seven long weeks of searching. Horton finally sees Gertrude, they fall in love, and Gertrude promises to help care for the newly hatched elephant bird.