192 Transactions. — Zoology. 



rats, and mice produce true albinos, as seen in their pink eyes, 

 there being no colouring-matter to hide the minute pink veins 

 which ramify in all directions in the eye-ball ; and these true 

 albinos may be said to be held in captivity by man, rather 

 than as being domesticated by him. It seems obvious that 

 such animals as are readily domesticated are in like manner 

 capable of assuming other colours than those of their wild 

 prototype within certain limits, and especially the habit of 

 becoming pied or marked with white. Some, too, lose all 

 colouring-matter in the hair, although perhaps still retaining 

 a ground-colour in the skin. 



For some years I kept white bulls — father, son, and grand- 

 son — and when carrying the short summer coat, or hair, each 

 of them showed a dark dappling on the skin when viewed at 

 short range, but none of them had colouring on the ears. I 

 never heard of an albino ox, but I believe such is sometimes 

 found among horses, although I am unable to name any 

 authority for such belief. 



We hear of albinism among cats, but in such cases the 

 eyes are of a blue colour, and they are said to be invariably 

 deaf. In the dog I know of no case of pure albinism, the 

 eyes always retaining their colour. Of these two animals — 

 the cat and dog — the cat easily takes up a wild roaming life 

 and becomes feral, as is indicated by this affinity to albinism. 



Among poultry we have, by domestication, introduced white 

 hens, ducks, and geese. The latter, however, are seldom a 

 perfect white, which indicates a less perfect stage of domes- 

 tication, although the so-called Chinese geese, having the 

 raised knob at the base of the bill, are a pure-white bird, and 

 thus show a period of longer domestication than those of 

 Europe. 



In a state of nature we have the white swan ; or has the 

 swan's colour altered under the hands of man ? We know 

 that the swans on the Eiver Thames belonged to the Munici- 

 pality, and that the young birds at the coming round of the 

 season were pinioned and had placed on them an ownership 

 mark. This custom is historical, and dates back into the long 

 ago. Undoubtedly we have the opposite colour to white — 

 namely, black — in the wild black swan of Australia, and 

 which now roams wild through New Zealand. The ancients 

 fully believed a black swan to be an impossibility, as will be 

 seen by the old Latin proverb, expressive of incredulity, 

 " Kara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno " (a scarce bird 

 in the world, and very like a black swan). 



The various colourings on one and the same feather seen 

 on many kinds of birds has always been beyond my compre- 

 hension. For instance, the tail-feathers of the huia were so 

 prized by the old-time Maori for head-ornaments that special 



