ON RESULTS IN THE ' BIOLOQIA CENTRALI-AMERICANA.' 541' 



cannot see my wa}^ to accept ; for such an explanation stands for 

 nothing more than a cloak to our ignorance of the basic cause of 

 the condition. Why we should find, for example, in a brood of 

 crows, three normally plumaged and the remaining one an albino, 

 has not, in my opinion, ever been satisfactoinlj"^ explained. 



"Among American fishes I have seen living examples of albino 

 brook trout, flounders, eels, and others ; while in the case of the 

 common or golden carp albinos are not infrequently met with in 

 nature. Salamanders and frogs occasionally exhibit it among the 

 Batrachians, while examples of it have been observed in the case 

 of certain snakes, ' horned toads,' and lizards. But in so far as 

 my personal experience goes, I have never met with an albino 

 turtle or a tortoise, although I have seen very pallid examples of 

 our common box-tortoise (Terepene Carolina). 



" Of all the Vertebi'ata birds seem to constitute the group most 

 frequently exemplifying this condition, and I have personally 

 examined or collected cases of complete or partial albinism, repie- 

 senting nearly every family of them. For the most pai't, this 

 has been seen in the case of loons, gulls, ducks (teal and mallard), 

 certain waders, sora^ rail, snipe, woodcock, quail, grouse, turkey, 

 vaiioiis owls and diurnal raptores, whippoorwill, and in not a few 

 passerine birds as crows, ravens, robins, bluebirds, finches, and 

 others. 



"•Whilst writing this I have a fine specimen of a ' piebald' robin 

 in my collection, which I collected in Connecticut in 1868. 



'•American mammals frequently afford examples of either 

 partial or complete albinism, and a few years ago, I had, for a 

 short time, in my possession an unusually fine living example of 

 our common woodchuck {^xirctomys nionax). On the daj'^ follow- 

 ing its arrival I succeeded in obtaining some fine photographic 

 negatives of the animal, and a photograph from the best one of 

 these is exhibited. 



" Other United States mammalian albinos collected or seen l)y 

 me have been examples of prairie marmots (Ci/nomis), Virginia 

 deer, muskrat, beaver, bats, porcupine, rabbits and hares, squirrels, 

 and some few other forms." 



June 6th, 1916. 



Prof. E. W. MacBride, D.Sc. F.R.S., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



At this meeting an informal discussion took place on the 

 results published in the ' Biologia-Centrali- Americana,' with 

 special reference to the zoo-geographical relations between 

 America and Africa, of which the following is a brief resume : — 



Dr. F. DuCane Godman, F.R.S., F.Z.S. — In compliance with 

 a request from the Publication Committee of this Society, I have 



