1908] Ward, Rapid Melanistic Change in a Caged- RoMn. 45 
is lively and pugnacious and desires to face one it is a rather un- 
satisfactory subject for detailed examination. 
The facts of the previous life of the robin, of its sudden and 
remarkably complete change from normal color to melanochroism 
and its subsequent albinistic tendencies have been vouched for by 
Dr. P. H. McGovern who has been personally familiar with it for 
more than three and a half years. 
On account of the season of year it has been impossible to 
make any tests as to the comparative degree of heat and humidity 
of this room and that of the open air when these factors might 
influence its plumage. 
In making a partial review of the literature of the subject I 
note the following: Mr. Ruthven Deane^ has listed 134 species of 
birds exhibiting more or less complete albinism and melanism of 
which 126 belonged to the former group and but 8 showed the lat- 
ter peculiarity. There is no doubt that a white bird is more con- 
spicuous and consequently more liable to attract attention than a 
black one but it is probable that the latter pathological condition 
is the less common. 
In the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club and in The 
Auk, covering a period of 32 years, I find mentioned five cases 
of melanism in the robin. One, presumably a wild bird, is men- 
tioned by Deane^. Another, a caged bird, was one of a nest of 
black robins taken at St. Johns of which Dr. Elliott Coues^ wrote 
in 1878 : "Mr. Boardman writes me later, under date of September 
23rd, that he has been much interested in watching the moult of 
the black robin, and says : 'He acts as if he were going to be an 
albino. His new tail is about half grown out, and is nearly white,, 
with a black stripe down each feather. His breast, head, neck 
and back are jet black, but very much out of feather.' " 
In 1884 W. B. Barrows* called attention to a caged robin taken 
as a normal nestling (at Middletown, Conn.) about six years 
previously. At the fourth fall moult ''a few white feathers were 
