June 1888.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



83 



birds looked as it they had been bleached out 

 in strong lye. It is not an unconnnon thing for 

 the Califoi:iia I'aitridgc to be taken iu some 

 state of Albino plumage. Most every one who 

 is interested iu the study of bird life asks: 

 " Did you ever see a ' White Blackl)ir(r:'" " Not 

 many, I guess. My bird was n<it wholly of 

 the .Mbino type, but all the more odd in having 

 only its tail fialhcrs white. Was one of those 

 fine-looking, military, red-shouliler strapped 

 (ihaps {Aijelaius ijubcriKitor), who may be seen 

 early in April sitting on some tall weed head, 

 or fence rail, tuning his pipes ami .setting his 

 colors well to the breeze to win his true love. 

 After chasing tliis gay cha|i for two days 

 through wet flowed fields, some eight miles 

 from llayvvards (this odd " Ilarlequin " was in 

 a Hock of some several luindreii Brewer's and 

 Hieolored lUackbirds), I gave him up, not ('ven 

 getting a shot at my Will o'-the-Wisp. 



In the collection of Henry ('hapman, one of 

 San Francisco's oldest naturalists and taxi<ler- 

 ists (now deceased), was a fine mounted .\lbino 

 liullle-Ilead {Charitonctla Albeula), being as 

 pure white as a Snowy Goose, none of the 

 characteristic markings of the duck's feathers 

 showing in the mantl(!of white. It was brought 

 iu to Mr. Chapman by one of the many bay pot 

 hunters. 



For a long lime I have seen a fine nu>unted 

 Albino Huddy Duck {EristuiUnrci rahida), in a 

 San Francisco gun-store window, also in 

 another gun-store a flue Albino Baldpate {Anas 

 amrn'cfina), neither of these ducks .showed any 

 of the fine pencillings there is to their feathers. 



During the early summer of ISSO, for several 

 weeks I noticed a young Albino of the many 

 English Sparrows (that have found their way 

 up here from Oaklami, fourteen miles), feeiling 

 along the streets of Ilaywards. Johnnie 

 looked as though he had got into some house- 

 wife's flower-barrel for his dust bath, instead of 

 his usual highway dust hole. 



His feathered markings showed all through 

 the plumage, and I noticed, that after a time, by 

 the fall moult, the whitish feathers had all dis- 

 appeared. I got permit to shoot Jolimue, but 

 the smell of my gimpowder was so strong it 

 reached into town before me. He soon found a 

 safe retreat in the many blue gum trees. 



L.ast of the most interesting .Mbino diminu- 

 tive feathered creatures, is one now before 

 me {Calyptc ann(K), a female, collected .luly 

 in, 1886, at Haywards, Cal. It will be hard to 

 give a good description ot this siiowflake. 

 From all appearances of its plumage, it must 

 have been a young bird, and the Albino 



feathers seem to precede the dropping of the first 

 ones, the tail feathers are the only ones that 

 seem to retain all the original markings and 

 color. The bright-spotted throat patch shines 

 with the usual lustre, but is edged with dusky 

 white ; from below the throat patch is a delicate 

 tinge of pearl-white till the bre.ast is reached, 

 here, the burnished sea-grecui shows more on 

 one side than the othei-. The head, back and 

 wings, are spotted over more or less with \vhit(i 

 feathers. The wing primaries are all of a dusky 

 color. A few of the tertlaries of the old dark 

 feathers renuiin, as also a few of the lesser cov- 

 erts and median coverts. In making a skin of 

 this humnu'r, I found that the white feathers 

 came out the easiest. The body was quite 

 wasted away, .and not, as in most cases, as 1 

 have found them to be, covered with fat. 

 Taken as a whole, this Cahijitr anna' forms a 

 very peculiar feature of Albinoism. What the 

 causes are to make a bird change its plunuige 

 from any natural color of its own to a white in 

 part or whole, has given rise to many theories. 

 Only <uic case of " Melanism " has come un- 

 der my notice, and for a long tiiae I could not 

 make it out, until I asked Mr. W. G. Blunt, ot 

 San Francisco, whose collection it was iu, what 

 kind of a robin he called that black fellow? 

 He said it had been sent him from the moun- 

 tains, as something new in the bird line. It 

 proved to be a Redbreast (M. miyratoriapropin- 

 qxta), decked out in a crow's suit of black, and 

 truly, he looked like a masquerader, his own 

 brother would not have known him. The plu- 

 mage shone with a Jet richness, and only bill 

 and eye showed him '' Hobin of old." Let us 

 hear from other collecti(Uis. 



Afield. 



IIV .1. M. W., NOlvWICH, CONN. 



With climbing-irons on his arm, instead of a 

 falcon on his wrist, the hawker of '88 contin- 

 ues his pur-suit of the base-born BiUi'.os. While 

 driving with his eyes open from i)atch to patch 

 of tall timber after his lai'ge ijuarry, he has 

 fine chances in the late mornings and early 

 evenings, along turnjiikes and brushy lanes, to 

 group new facts and confirm recorded notes 

 " in the swim " of the Spring migration. He 

 finds that, notwithstanding the late vegetation 

 and so-called backward season, the feathei-ed 

 arrivals are fidly as early as usual. The I'esi- 

 dent Bluebirds anil Itobins welcomed the bulk 



