eat oi eee 
ZOOLOGY. 173 
twenty, as in this instance. The alleged difference in proportions 
of tarsus and middle toe is within the ordinary range of individual 
variation ; while the points of color adduced may be matched in 
almost any game bag— indeed, I do not see how the writer ever dis- 
covered them, intent as he says he was on the edible qualities of 
the bird, to which he had better have confined his investigations. 
He is not to blame, of course, for knowing nothing of ornithology, 
but he ought not to have rushed into print on the subject, when any 
ornithologist would willingly have examined his specimen for him, 
and kept him out of a scrape. If you think this bears down too hard 
on the writer, ease it up a little; but I really think that Mr. Jay- 
cox will in the course of time thank you for printing it; I remem- 
ber that just such raps did some of my early lucubrations good.” 
ALBINISM AND MerLANIsSM.— In the November number of the 
Narvrauist is an article on a “ Singular Albino,” an ‘albino bobo- 
link” (Dolichongx oryzivorus) ‘illustrating a rare and curious 
condition,” being “of a uniform pale yellow, exactly like a ca- 
nary bird.” 
I would like to ask the writer or any of the readers of the Nart- 
URALIST if ‘they have ever seen an albino bobolink marked other- 
wise. I have one taken in this vicinity which perfectly answers 
to the description given above. It looks precisely like a yellow 
canary with the exception of size and pointed tail feathers. The 
remark js frequently made by those visiting my collection, « what 
a large canary that is.” This is the only albino bobolink that I 
have seen, and it may be unusually marked, yet the description in 
the Naturarisr so exactly corresponds to the one in my cabinet, 
that the thought occurs to me that this perhaps may be the usual 
Color of the albino of this species. Although albino signifies white, 
yet there may be various shades of white. I find this statement 
verified in my own collection. Before me is an albino mink (Pu- 
lorius bison), muskrat (Fiber Zibethicus), two wharf rats (Mus de- 
cumanus), two house mice (Mus musculus), pure white, and also 
an albino red squirrel (Sciurus Hudsonius), meadow mouse (Arvic- 
ew), blue-bird (Sialia sialis), two robins (Turdus migra- 
ius), barn swallow (Hirundo horreorum), cliff swallow (Hir- 
Wado lunifrons), white, but not pure white. They are more of a 
dingy white. In the bobolink described above, it might be called 
a Yellowish white. In the albino the eye is always red. 
