SPOTTED DONKEY AT SORRENTO, ITALY 
The leopard has spots and, according to tradition, does not change them; the ass, on the con- 
trary, has not spots and appears very reluctant to acquire them. But here is an Italian 
specimen which is mostly spot, the original dark color being reduced to a few patches. 
His facial expression lends some support to a theory that has been advanced—that albinism 
is due to a lack of vigor. 
that vicinity there were others of the 
same appearance. 
It has seemed worth while to call 
attention to these two types of asses, 
the ‘‘blaze’”’ face, and the white with 
bi-lateral dark areas, because it ap- 
pears that asses spot much less fre- 
quently than other domestic animals, 
with the exception of the elephant and 
the camel. 
SPOTTING AND DOMESTICATION 
So far as I am able to learn there are 
few exceptions to the rule that the 
members of wild species are typically 
or specifically marked. There appears 
to be no exception to the rule that in 
domestication all have yielded indi- 
viduals which are spotted with white. 
To what is this due? Is the seemingly 
more frequent spotting of domestic 
animals (including human) due to an 
upsetting of the normal process of 
Photograph by Albert Ernest Jenks. 
(Fig. 8.) 
pigment metabolism in the conditions 
of domestication? Is the seemingly 
more frequent spotting of domestic 
animals due to the protection in domes- 
tication which saves the spotted indi- 
viduals from the destructive selective 
forces which prey upon the animals of 
a natural (or “wild’’) environment? 
No matter which one of these conditions 
is the cause of the frequent spotting of 
domestic animals, and granting that 
both may have contributed, selection in 
breeding or forced interbreeding, or 
both, have probably greatly aided pro- 
duction of spotted domestic animals. 
Selection by man has saved the 
spotted animals (even perfecting breeds 
with well-fixed spotted pattern), while 
clothing has saved the spotted man by 
making selection against spotted indi- 
viduals more largely impossible. My col- 
league, Dr. C. E. Johnson, Department 
of Animal Biology, University of Min- 
167 
