COUNTRY LIFE
THE inmates bf a Gloucestershire farmhouse have been much interested in the daily observation of that seasonable appearance, a snowy robin. The colour is uniform, except for a very slight flush on the breast. Other robins evince no objection to the freakish hue. Occasional albinos occur in, I think, most species, as a wonderful Rothschild collection suggests. Among rather rarer examples I have personally seen a white rook, a white greenfinch and several white French partridges. If my experience is general—and I think it is—blackbirds are particularly liable to this deficiency of colouring matter, and I have known it—against all the rules —to be hereditary in some measure. This Gloucester robin is a rarity, especially in regard to the completeness of the whiteness. Most so-called albinos are more or less piebald. Incidentally, in my neighbourhood this Christmas a magpie joined a flock of rooks and until it took to flight was mistaken for an albino.
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