1913] The Ottawa Naturalist 125 



a greenish cast, those on rock}- bottoms being darkest, as off 

 the western Nova Scotia shores, but on sandy, shallower areas, 

 as off Prince Edward Island, the color is paler, and often greenish 

 or even brownish. 



Professor Herrick records a very black specimen, only 6 or 

 7 inches long, found among eel-grass in three-fathom shallows 

 off the Maine coast, and the captor, a fisherman, thought at 

 first that it was coated with coal-tar. It was regarded as a 

 melanic specimen, and it may be mentioned that melanism has 

 been noticed also in crabs. Abnormally colored lobsters have 

 been reported of a red or reddish-yellow color, when alive ; 

 others are cream colored, i.e., color is practicallv absent, but 

 mottled specimens, blue-green and yellow, are not rare, while 

 pied examples, showing bold green and light vellow spots, are 

 less common. The specimen secured by me was, in the main, 

 of a yellowish-white, as already stated, but small blue-black 

 spots occurred here and there, on the highest parts of the back. 

 No doubt the example was a pathological or "abnormallv 

 physiological" specimen and a near approach to the typical 

 albino. 



The third case of albinism recently brought to my notice 

 is that of an albino porpoise (Phoccena phocana, L.), which was 

 captured in Scotland, and a photograph of which was sent to 

 me by my friend Professor Mcintosh, F.R.S., of St. Andrews. 

 The Loudon Globe, some years ago, gave an account of an 

 English specimen obtained near Ventnor, Isle of Wight, which 

 was described as white, but of a reddish color on the under side. 

 It was shipped alive to the famous Brighton aquarium and 

 exhibited there, according to a correspondent, Mr. R. Blake, of 

 Ventnor. 



The normal color of the porpoise, as is well known, is a 

 deep, shining black, but the breast and under surface is dirty 

 white; but this albino specimen, studied at the Gatty Marine 

 Biological Station, St. Andrews, Scotland, was a female of a 

 dull yellowish color, with a faint longitudinal band, somewhat 

 dusky, along the upper lateral region on each side, while a band 

 of the same dusky appearance curved in a crescentic course 

 round the front of each eye, reaching to the corner of the mouth. 

 It measured 2 feet 10 inches in length and was rather more than 

 half grown. Professor Mcintosh notes that it seemed to retain 

 the coloration of the very young porpoise, for a specimen 6 inches 

 long, secured at St. Andrews, on Nov. 18th, 1911, was duskv 

 over the dorso-lateral region, the head very dark above as far 

 as the neck and the breast flippers, dorsal fin and horizontal 

 tail-flukes were blackish, the tinder surface of the last being very 



