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little domestic Japanese Weaver- Finch, the Bengalee {Uioloncha 

 acuticauda), may be found a dark-brown and white variety, which 

 is the normal form with the addition of white feathers, and a 

 cinnamon and white, but not a mixture of dark-brown and 

 cinnamon. 



In a complete albino, the eyes, bill and feet are all devoid 

 of pigment, which results in the eye becoming pink ; and this 

 may happen in the pale or cinnamon variety also; but this is not 

 always the case, for instance, white Jackdaws do not have pink 

 eyes, while white Blackbirds have. Albinism is not always 

 permanent; but the albino, on its moult, may revert to the 

 naturally coloured form. Such a change, however, appears only 

 to occur in specimens in which the beak, feet and eyes retain the 

 natural colour. I have never known a case of such reversion in 

 a pink-eyed bird, or in one which had flesh-coloured bill and 

 feet. A converse change may also take place ; that is to say, a 

 normally-coloured bird may become more or less white, generally 

 on advancing age, which looks as if the phenomenon were 

 analogous to grey hairs in our own species and in domestic 

 animals. It is to be noted that in albino varieties any red colour 

 found in type is pretty certain to be retained ; thus I have seen a. 

 white Goldfinch with the usual red face, and everyone is familiar 

 with the red comb of white fowls, though these almost always 

 have yellow or white legs. 



The distinction between Buff and Jonque or yellow cage 

 birds is familiar to all fanciers. It is most conspicuous and best 

 known in Canaries, in which the specimens called "yellow" by 

 fanciers are only the bright buttercup coloured ones, while the 

 more numerous pale yellow birds whose feathers are fringed with 

 white, are called "buffs." The distinction is found in green varieties 

 also, and Mr. G. E. Weston has pointed out that it occurs in British 

 Finches generally. I have myself observed it in groups remote 

 from these. Thus the grey-headed Porphyrio, a large blue 

 Moorhen, common in India, is usually decidedly mealy in colour- 

 ation, but a Jonque form of it occurs — if one may apply such a 

 term to a blue bird — in which the mealy edgings of the feathers 

 are absent, so that even the grey head which gives the species 

 its name is not to be seen in such examples. The same thing 



