ORNAMENTAL COAT. . 159 
interspersed among the colored hairs, so that I had a light gray 
elk instead of a spotted elk. The year following that, the white 
hairs were very much diminished in number, but still were dis- 
tinctly observable on several parts of the body and one leg. 
Since then, her coat has been undistinguishable from the other 
females of the herd. I have since several times observed on 
adult female elk, well defined spots of clear white hairs from 
one to four inches in diameter, but I have never found these to 
occur the second time on the same animal. 
On the Virginia deer it is not uncommon to find a white hair 
scattered here and there in the coat, and I once had a doe on 
whose forehead, when a year old, a clear white spot appeared 
about half an inch in diameter. This was observed for two years 
and then disappeared, and never after was anything observed pe- 
culiar about the markings of this deer. Between these fugitive 
and transitory white spots observed on individual members of sev- 
eral species, and the perfect white coat and red eyes of the true 
albino, every imaginable gradation may be met with. I have 
mounted in my collection a Virginia doe about half the body of 
which is white, the balance is the normal color; the lines of 
junction of the two colors are well defined. While we are in the 
habit of calling such specimens albinos, they are probably not so 
in fact, but rather have exceptional markings which are present 
but a single year, or at most but a few years. These abnormal 
markings are far more abundant on Cervus Columbianus than on 
either of the other species. On an examination of a large lot of 
pelts of this deer in Portland, Oregon, I found a great many thus 
marked. I saw none that were pure white but some that were 
nearly so, others with but a little white upon them. I selected 
a skin for my collection, which I thought the most beautiful 
among those I examined, which I have now. The body is cov- 
ered with a white ground. All over this are scattered numerous 
spots of different sizes and various colors. Most of them are 
either black or approaching the normal color of the animal. 
I have met but one true albino deer ; that was of the common 
species, in a park in the city of Philadelphia, many years ago. 
It was a good sized buck, as white as snow all over, and I have 
no doubt had red eyes, though I was not near enough to de- 
termine that question. I have heard of several others. That true 
albino Columbia deer are very common in Washington Terri- 
tory, I cannot doubt. White deer are there so abundant in cer- 
tain localities, that some have supposed they were a distinct spe- 
