WHITE COLOR. Ill 



Farnsworth, of New York, were up there, and out in the wood?, 

 and they saw there red squirrels with white tails ; they caught 

 one, put him in a warm room, and fed him, and the tail began 

 to turn ; and it was not more than ten days before it was just 

 exactly the color of the rest of the squirrel. Now, the question 

 is, whether the food of the squirrel did not have upon him 

 something the same effect that it has upon parrots in South 

 America. 



[After a few moments' interlocution, in which several mem- 

 bers of the Board and others participated, Professor Chadbourne 

 continued : — ] 



There are certain other facts connected with this change of 

 color. It is well known by those who have studied the birds of 

 this country, that the ptarmigan, or grouse of Greenland, 

 becomes perfectly white in winter ; in summer, it changes its 

 color. But in the summer time, those birds that live and build 

 their nests up near the glaciers, so that they may be said to be 

 in a sort of semi-winter state, never completely change, but 

 retain during the whole summer part of their white feathers. 

 And, more than that : while the common color of their eggs is 

 about that of our partridge eggs, part of the eggs of those birds 

 that build their nests near the glaciers are perfectly white. I 

 got some of those eggs, and they were just as white as hen's 

 eggs. The missionaries say they are always of that color. I do 

 not undertake to explain these facts ; I only mention them as 

 facts. Then, again, as you go north among the Faroe Islands, 

 in Iceland, you find that they do not shear their sheep ; they 

 catch them and pull the wool off, and you find a strong tendency 

 in the black sheep to have white wool mixed up in their fleece. 

 I saw it first to a marked degree in the Faroe Islands, and then 

 in Iceland, that seemed to be a characteristic of the flocks there. 



Mr. Flint. It is well known to all who are familiar with the 

 diseases of animals that white horses, or perhaps white and gray 

 horses, are subject to some diseases to which other colored 

 horses are not. Take, for instance, the disease known as 

 melanosis. I don't suppose a case of that disease was ever 

 known, or if ever, but very rarely, in a black, bay or red horse ; 

 but it is not uncommon in white horses. It is a disease which 

 appears in the form of tumors ; and you frequently observe a 

 large tumor near the root of the tail of a white horse. If, as is 



