lxxvi PROLEGOMENA 



variation in the colour of our Lakeland Fallow Deer is to be seen 

 in Mr. Bank's park at Wigton, probably due to the herd having 

 been made up by draughts of other herds procured from different 

 parts of England. The Fallow Deer kept at Muncaster are 

 chiefly of a light sandy type, with black tail and conspicuously 

 white hind quarters. Those kept at Dallam Tower are most 

 conspicuously spotted. 

 Birds. With regard to white and pied varieties of birds, those 



enumerated in the Birds of Cumberland would cover most of the 

 abnormities procured in Lakeland, since these tend to recur 

 again and again. Among certain species leucotism is almost 

 to be termed common : the House Sparrow, Starling, and Eook 

 are instances. Genuine albinism on the other hand is extremely 

 uncommon. Last year Mr. H. E. Eawson found two White 

 Willow Wrens in a nest in his garden at Windermere. These 

 were true albinos, with eyes ' like rubies.' Similarly, Mr. C. 

 W. Smith has written to inform me that, a few years since, 

 he took two albino House Sparrows from a nest in a haystack 

 and reared them. The interest commonly attached to white 

 examples of the Raven dates from classical times. Johannes 

 Caius supplies the first mention of white Ravens in Lakeland : 

 'Anno domini, 1548, Augusto mense, corvos duos candidos ex 

 eodem nido vidi et contrectavi istic in Cumbria nostras Britannia?, 

 apud ejusdem provincise comitem nativos, atque ita ad aucupium 

 factos ut accipitres. Nam et brachio falconarii quiete insidere, 

 et soluti ad ejus vocem atque signum vel e longinquo quam 

 celerrime advolare docti errant.' x Sandford's record of a 

 white Raven at Ravenglass may be compared with the fore- 

 going, as well as John Evelyn's remark on the white Raven — 

 ' bred in Cumberland ' — which he saw in London. 2 White game 

 birds have often been noticed. The Red Grouse is occasionally 

 much pied or variegated. A female bird which Leslie received 

 from Alston was shown to me on October 13, 1888. Two of 

 the primaries in each wing were pure white, as was the right 

 side of the breast. The underwing coverts were chiefly white. 

 The Carlisle Patriot of August 27, 1858 furnishes the following 



1 De variorum animalium et avium stirpibus. 

 - Cf. Birds of Cumberland, p. 60. 



