Marcu 1, 1912] 
The time and place of origin of the common 
white mouse is entirely unknown; the same is 
true of nearly all distinct varieties of animals 
either domesticated or wild. Peculiar inter- 
est therefore attaches to a case in which an 
albino race has arisen from a wild species. 
Such a ease I will now briefly describe. 
The native field mouse of North America is 
known by several different common names, 
such as deer mouse, field mouse, white-footed 
mouse and wood mouse. Systematic zoologists 
at the present time give it the generic name 
Peromyscus. The most recent and exhaust- 
ive study of this genus is that of Osgood* 
(1909), who, after examining over 27,000 
specimens from all the great collections of 
America and all other available sources, “ con- 
servatively ” recognizes 157 distinct species 
and subspecies. 
In the light of this exhaustive study it 
seems probable that Peromyscus is the most 
abundant and the most widely distributed of 
North American mammals, as well as one of 
the most carefully studied from the systematic 
standpoint. Nevertheless an albino specimen 
has never up to the present time been re- 
ported, which would seem to indicate that its 
occurrence is very rare. 
In the fall of 1909, Mr. K. S. Clark caught 
in the woods near St. Johns, Clinton County, 
Michigan, a pure white albino Peromyscus. 
This he kept alive for some weeks and then 
delivered it to Professor Walter B. Barrows, 
of the Michigan Agricultural College, where 
Mr. Clark was a student. Fortunately 
neither Mr. Clark nor Professor Barrows 
obeyed the common impulse straightway to 
make a museum specimen of the rare individ- 
ual. They tended this unique animal with 
great care. Later through the kindly interest 
of Professor W. M. Barrows, of Ohio State 
University, who was engaged with me in 
breeding experiments with Peromyscus, the 
albino was sent to me. I received it in Feb- 
1 Osgood, Wilfred H., ‘‘ Revision of the Mice of 
the American Genus Peromyscus,’’ Publication of 
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Bio- 
logical Survey, N. A. Fauna, No. 28, 285 pp., 
8 pls., Washington, 1909. 
SCIENCE 
347 
ruary, 1911, and kept it alive at my house ox 
at the Bussey Institution until January 29, 
1912, when it died probably from extreme cold.. 
In March, 1911, Mr. Clark trapped a dozen 
other Peromyscus near the place where he had 
caught the albino the previous fall, and sent 
these to me. All were normal in appearance 
and referable to Peromyscus leucopus nove- 
boracensis Fischer, as described by Osgood. 
Two of the females were successfully mated 
with the albino which proved to be a male. 
During the summer and fall of 1911 they pro- 
duced 6 litters of young including 28 individ- 
uals, all normal in appearance like the 
mothers. One of the daughters was mated 
with the albino father in October, 1911. On 
November 21 she bore a litter of three young, 
an albino and two ordinary young, but all 
were eaten the following night. Three weeks 
later she bore a litter of four young, two being 
albinos and two normal. The albinos were 
successfully reared, but no more young have 
since been born, and as this species does not 
breed in winter it is not probable that more 
will be obtained for some months. 
The behavior of the albino variation thus 
far is that of a simple Mendelian recessive, as 
in house mice, guinea-pigs, rabbits and rats. 
The experiment has not yet progressed far 
enough to show whether the albino variation 
has been attended by variation in any other 
pigment factor, and so its continuation is 
awaited with interest. In the other rodents 
mentioned we have not only albino varieties, 
but also black ones (lacking a ticking or 
“agouti” factor), in all except rats yellow 
ones (with a reduced amount of black), and in 
mice and guinea-pigs brown ones (lacking 
black entirely). As nothing is known con- 
cerning the origin of these variations, it is 
uncertain whether they arose simultaneously 
with the albino variation, or as a consequence 
of it, or wholly independently of it. As, how- 
ever, we find the inheritance of these varia- 
tions to be wholly independent of the inherit- 
ance of albinism, it seems probable that in 
origin also these variations were independent. 
A case in which observation along these lines 
is possible is heartily welcomed. 
