20 QUARTERLY BULLETIN. 



quotation that I can at present recollect is the record of a Mass. 

 specimen in " Am. Nat.," vol. vi, p. 30G. The occurrence of 

 the. present individual so far inland is worthy of remark. 



ALMNISM AND MELANISM AMONG NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 

 BY RUTHVEN DEANK. 



What a striking contrast it is as we examine a collection of 

 Birds, to see one of our familiar friends standing out in hold 

 relief among others of its own species clad in a spotless suit, or 

 perhaps wearing a most variegated coloration of plumago, a 

 white head, a white wing, or a few white tail feathers, while the 

 rest of the bird retains its normal plumage. 



This " freak of nature " is of more frequent occurrence than 

 is generally supposed, yet notwithstanding how difficult it is for 

 an individual to get together any number of specimens. 



I presume there is scarcely a collection of any size in the 

 country that has not one or more specimens represented, and 

 yet many of our most experienced collectors, who have shot 

 thousands of birds, are yet to have the luck (for sheer luck we 

 must call it) to add a specimen to their cabinet taken with their 

 own gun, and one must generally be content with but few ex- 

 amples. 



During the past few years I have been fortunate enough to 

 add about a dozen specimens to my collection, though have only 

 taken an individual myself. As I have just remarked we may 

 shoot a whole season in various parts of the country, and travel 

 many miles without happening upon a single specimen, yet 

 scarcely a week passes that we do not see in some of our daily 

 papers that so and so recently shot a white Robin, or a white 

 English Sparrow was seen in one of our public parks, or a white 

 Blackbird is making a sensation in a certain locality, and it 

 must be generally acknowledged that the casual observer is more 

 fortunate than one who is constantly in the woods and fields. 



Pure albinism is of rare occurrence, the majority of specimens 

 retaining more or less of their normal dress. Of course this 

 disease is liable to occur in any birds, though more frequently 



