5272 TYRANT FLYCATCHER. 



than a month old. This appeared also to have been its original 

 colour, as it issued from the egg. The skin was yellowish white; 

 the eye much lighter than usual; the legs and bill blue. It was 

 plump and seemingly in good order. I presented it to Mr. Peale. 

 Whatever may be the cause of this loss of colour, if I may so 

 call it, in birds, it is by no means uncommon among the various 

 tribes that inhabit the United States. The Sparrow Hawk, Spar- 

 row, Robin, Red-winged Blackbird, and many others, are oc- 

 casionally found in white plumage; and I believe that such birds 

 do not become so by climate, age or disease, but that they are 

 universally hatched so. The same phenomena are observable not 

 only among various sorts of animals, but even among the human 

 race; and a white negro is no less common, in proportion to 

 their numbers, than a white Blackbird; though the precise cause 

 of this in either is but little understood. 



