April 16, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



577 



By such concentration of effort, and by sucli 

 alone, can the departments of botany in agri- 

 cultural colleges put tbemselves in position to 

 answer the demands for botanical knowledge 

 that will be made upon them. By such atten- 

 tion to plants, not as crops and as a part of 

 an industry, but as part of a wide world's 

 life, can they properly supplement the prac- 

 tical knowledge of departments of agronomy. 

 By working separately and together, each in its 

 well-defined sphere, can departments of botany 

 and departments of agronomy in agricultural 

 colleges contribute to the people and to the in- 

 dustry of agriculture, such science and such 

 practise as will entitle their institutions to an 

 honored place in future collegiate life. 



A. N. Hume 



South Dakota State College of 

 Ageicultuee and Mechanic Arts 



some notes on albinism 



This journal has recently^ briefly recorded 

 some observation of albinos which recall some 

 chance observations of the writer. 



In the late " eighties " or early " nineties " 

 when the English sparrow first became common 

 and abundant near Franklin, Indiana, the 

 writer, as a boy, was much impressed by seeing 

 a white English sparrow. The albino, as well 

 as two or more partial albinos, was repeatedly 

 seen during the latter part of one summer in 

 a large flock of the birds which lived about 

 the barn on the home farm. During the same 

 or a subsequent season there occurred one or 

 more of the partial albinos in a large flock of 

 the sparrows on an adjoining farm. Three or 

 four years ago a female English sparrow pied 

 on one wing and a portion of the back was 

 frequently observed at Cold Spring Harbor. 



Within two or three years of the time when 

 the albino English sparrows were seen in 

 Indiana a white fox squirrel was frequently 

 seen in the same neighborhood. The writer 

 saw it only once momentarily and at some dis- 

 tance, but other members of the family saw 

 it and a brother examined it after it was shot 

 by a neighbor. It was white except for the 

 tail, which was characteristically gray. The 



1 O 'Gara, January 1 ; Hargitt, February 12, 

 1915. 



writer is under the impression that he was told 

 that the eyes were " red," but can not vouch for 

 that statement, although it is apparently a 

 fairly safe inference that they were pink. 



Near Oswego, Indiana (in 1903 or 1904), 

 was seen an albino robin. It was not a clean 

 white, but was tinged a slightly brownish or 

 dirty hue. The bird was clearly seen at fairly 

 close range and its identification could not 

 have been mistaken. 



In 1909 a family of gray squirrels, attracted 

 by the abundant supplies of nuts, etc., prof- 

 fered them, nested in a tree in the yard near 

 a house in the edge of the town of Marietta, 

 Ohio. One of the squirrels, the male, was a 

 complete albino. Three of the young were 

 albinos and one was a normally pigmented 

 individual. The mother was accidentally 

 killed and the young died. The following sea- 

 son an albino young one was captured and was 

 kept in captivity until maturity. It was a 

 pure albino with white hair and characteristic 

 pink eyes. In all to the present time there are 

 said to have been eleven albino squirrels known 

 in that locality. 



In 190Y while collecting the common aquatic 

 isopod, Asellus communis, in a spring stream 

 at Arlington, Mass., I found a number of pure 

 albinos. The albinos were fairly abundant, 

 there being perhaps one albino to eight or ten 

 of the normally pigmented individuals. In 

 January, 1910, and again in 1911 albino 

 Asellus were found at the same spring. 



In a small artificial pond in the Catskill 

 Mountains last October the writer saw what 

 he confidently believes to have been an albino 

 newt, Diem^yctylus viridescens. The animal 

 was near the edge of the pool and escaped into 

 deep water. It could not be located on subse- 

 quent visits to the pond, only a portion of 

 whose margin was readily accessible for obser- 

 vation. The individual was pairing when 

 seen and was apparently a female. There 

 were many nevrts in the pond, on some of 

 which the black pigment was not very con- 

 spicuous, but this one appeared so distinctly 

 a clear uniforin light orange yellow that its 

 identification as an albino seemed fairly safe. 

 It appeared very much to resemble in general 

 body color an albinic or santhic specimen of 



