iS8$.] General Notes. I 1 3 



me that on the 14th of August last he saw at Concordia quite a number, 

 mostly young birds, and that Dr. C. P. Blachly has in his collection a 

 female shot some three years ago at Manhattan. — N. S. Goss, Topeka, 

 Kari. 



Third Addendum to List of Birds Ascertained to Occur within Ten 

 Miles from Point des Monts, Province of Quebec, Canada; Based 

 Chiefly upon the Notes of Napoleon A. Comeau. — (For the original list 

 and first and second addenda see Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club. Vol. VII, No. 4, 

 Oct., 1882, pp. 233-242; Vol. VIII, No. 4. Oct., 1S83, P- 2 44! and The Auk, 

 Vol. I. No. 3, July, 1SS4. p. 295.) 



171. Anorthura troglodytes hyemalis. — A pair of Winter Wrens spent 

 the past summer (1884) at Godbout. They were first seen July 7. This 

 species was not observed in the Gulf by either Mr. Brewster or myself, 

 though it is common in Newfoundland. 



172. Somateria dresseri. — Mr. William Brewster has recently called 

 my attention to the fact that among the skins of Eider Ducks sent me by 

 Mr. Comeau are examples of both 5. mollissima and 6 1 . dresseri. 



173. Tachypetes aquila. — A Frigate Pelican was seen and shot at by 

 Mr. Comeau at Godbout August 13, 18S4. It had previously been seen 

 (about the end of July) by the keeper of the lightship at Manicougan. 

 about forty miles higher up the river. 



A second specimen of the Wheatear (Saxicola cenanthe) was taken 

 at Godbout, September 19, 1SS4, and was exhibited by Mr. Comeau 

 at the late meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union. — C. Hart 

 Merriam, Locust Grove, New York. 



Albinism. — My attention was drawn to a note in the 'Oologist' for 

 April last, in which the writer gives his experience in albinism and asks 

 for an explanation of these freaks of nature. In order to air mv experi- 

 ence, and at the same time to give a probable cause, which I would like, 

 for the sake of possible verification, other observers to look for in the 

 future, is the object of the present note. 



True albinism is of course congenital, and is a condition in which 

 the normal pigmentary matter is deficient in the system of the individual 

 affected; in such cases the eyes are pink, and the skin with its appendages 

 are white or nearly so. In the case of partial albinos, however, it is diffi- 

 cult; their condition can probably be explained by some circumstances 

 occurring after birth which will account for the change in the color of the 

 skin, such for instance as the case given by the writer in the 'Oologist,' 

 in which the skin had been injured on the back of a Swift, and next year 

 the patch of white feathers indicated the situation of the injury. The same 

 thing is familiar in the case of the horse whose back or shoulder is galled 

 by the harness; white patches appear, owing to lowered vitality of the in- 

 jured part. These cases are familiar, but I wish to give possibly another 

 cause acting in the same way. only more general. It is this. When a boy 

 I shot among others a black squirrel peculiarly marked, it having a per- 



