64 RIDGWAY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



usually of a weak constitution and apt to be intellectually deficient, 

 and by the authority of the American Cyclopcedia who says they 

 lack the strength of other men. However, it will be noticed that Dr. 

 Van Harlingen admits that the best paper extant was written by a 

 German albino, while Baron Richard von Konig-Warthausen does 

 not commit himself to either side of the question. This, it seems 

 to me, throws the weight of evidence in favor of the undisturbed 

 physical and mental power theory. 



Dr. Van Harlingen* says, " the only etiological element known 

 or suspected in the production of albinism is heredity, and even this 

 is wanting in the greater number of cases. It seems probable that 

 the sisters in any given family are likely to be attacked rather than 

 the brothers, if more than one individual is affected." 



The etiology is not mentioned by Dr. Fox or the American 

 Cyclopcedia further than that they both agree that it is a congenital 

 absence of pigment. 



Baron Richard von Konig-Warthausenf records an instance 

 which occurred during his residence at Ulm (1842-1846), where, on 

 a public promenade in that city, a pair of white domestic sparrows 

 raised a brood of young for several years. 



Another authority J says: "Speaking again of albinos I would 

 ike to say something yet about their propagation. 



" It is successful in domestic conditions as I have occasionally 

 convinced myself. 



" It may be about ten years since, when I lived in the same 

 house with a weaver, who, partly for profit, partly for amusement, 

 spent his leisure hours in training several birds; experiments of pair- 

 ing different varieties; and bastard raising. Though not always 

 successful he often obtained young ones from such breeds, and I 

 remember very well his joy over a young one, which he showed 

 me one day, that was gotten by the pairing of a white Canary fe- 

 male with a male Thistle Finch. It became a beautiful white spec- 

 imen with a reddish-yellow breast-plate, but it did not live long. 

 The man is now also dead, and I regret it the more as he was just 

 the man, with sufficient patience, to continue such experiments. 



" My experiments were limited, not having any albinos of 

 other varieties, to the Laughing Dove ( C. risoria), which I paired 



♦Buck's Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, Vol. I., p. 101. 

 t Journal fur Ornithologie, Cab. II., 1854, pp. 249-253. 

 + Julius Finger. Naumannia, 1853, p. 157. 



