March, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
159 
scendants would sometimes be found on the 
Island, a very careful watch was main¬ 
tained throughout the Island. 
About the middle of June, 1916, a white 
fawn only a few days old was discovered 
in a thicket and brought to the hotel. Here, 
with careful attention and in the company 
of another fawn, it grew rapidly. During 
the earlier months this fawn had the usual 
row of white spots on the back and sides, 
and although there was no difference be¬ 
tween these and the body color, they were 
conspicuous in the same way that satin 
needlework in a single color may carry a 
varied pattern. Shortly after this, a good- 
sized albino buck was noticed loitering 
about the box traps set for capturing deer 
that were to be shipped away, and with lit¬ 
tle effort it was trapped, and placed in a 
smaller range with half a dozen ordinary 
does. In June, 1917, one of these does 
bore an albino doe fawn, which lacked, 
however, the brocaded white spots which 
characterized the previous one. 
By this time, the first fawn had become 
The fawn thrived and grew to be a handsome pure white doe 
a yearling and was placed in the same en¬ 
closure. Last fall I learned from a member 
of the Michigan Sportsmen’s Association 
that there was a yearling albino doe at the 
State Game Farm, and in a few weeks it 
was safely transported to Grand Island, 
where such an addition, in new blood, will 
prove of undoubted value. With the three 
white does, a white buck, and the addition 
of a number of other does, the ensuing 
spring should tell the story of this effort. 
It may be of interest to note that the 
original buck weighed about 150 pounds 
and possessed a rather extraordinary set of 
antlers, spreading 26 inches, with terminal 
points much farther apart than any I have 
ever seen. The velvet on the antlers of 
both bucks was snow-white, giving them a 
most statuesque appearance amid the green 
foliage of the forest. The eyes of the three 
native albinos are a very light gray-blue, 
while the doe from the southern portion of 
the State has the usual red eye-balls. The 
lack of any pigment in the layers of the 
retina of this individual discloses the red 
blood vessels that characterize most albinos 
and makes it very susceptible to a bright 
light. The second buck differs from the 
original one in being somewhat larger, but 
it has two long, upright spikes of about 18 
inches, the left one of the last two years 
being slightly forked. 
While the writer has been under the im¬ 
pression that the offspring of albinos were 
usually white and on and after the third 
generation uniformly so, following the rule 
in silver and black foxes, Dr. James G. 
Needham, Professor of Biology at Cornell, 
writes: “I would say that full albinos of 
both sexes should breed true from the first, 
albinism being, in so far as known to me, a 
purely recessive character among mam¬ 
mals.” Such assurance, therefore, makes 
the problem less difficult, and in the absence 
of accident or disease, there should soon 
be a permanent herd of these interesting 
animals. There are many nature lovers 
who are vitally interested in the efforts of 
science to produce and perpetuate new 
variants of existing species, who will 
be gratified to know that as time goes on, 
specimens of this new and beautiful phase 
of the white-tail will find representation 
in our zoological parks. 
The first albino fawn was raised as carefully as a baby 
the original plan, viz.: the establishment of 
a beautiful herd of albino white-tail deer. 
One of the fundamental characteristics of 
the Michigan deer has been the general uni¬ 
formity in physical appearance, for, though 
more deer have been killed in Michigan the 
past forty years than the aggregate else¬ 
where, there are very few freaks in antlers 
or extremes in weight, while albinism has 
been extremely rare. 
Only once, in the long period that I have 
hunted or photographed these animals in 
this region, have I seen an albino, and that 
one lingered for a year and a half about my 
camp, which is situated midway between 
Marquette and Grand Island. Signs were 
put up in the neighborhood reading: “Do 
not shoot the white deer—it will bring you 
bad luck.” But, though the first part of 
the appeal stayed the hand of the sports¬ 
man, and the latter—that of most pot¬ 
hunters—it was finally killed by an unsuper- 
stkious homesteader, and the heretofore 
unsuccessful efforts to photograph it, 
naturally came to an end. 
Some eight years ago word came that a 
fine albino buck had been seen frequently 
on Grand Island and that it came to a little 
pond on the easterly part of the Island 
Taking a camping outfit, a canoe and m> 
guide, several days and nights were spent 
watching the pond, and although other deer 
came during the day', or were seen under 
the jacklight, the white buck did not appear. 
The next year the quest was no more 
successful, and when I heard that on the 
opening of the season the buck had been 
killed by a lumber jack, it was satisfactory 
to know that the body had been shipped to 
a taxidermist in Detroit, preparatory to 
being added to the little museum of the 
Island hotel. There later, I took the meas¬ 
urements of the antlers and body, and then, 
to show what a striking picture such a 
marbled figure would present, with a back¬ 
ground of black, the mounted animal was 
carried one'evening to the edge of the 
forest, where once it had roamed, and the 
Hash was fired. Feeling quite confident 
from the age of this buck that white de¬ 
