The gross appearance of the dorsal coat is pale buff in the adult, pale neutral gray in the juvenile. Most of the eumelanin pigment is lacking in the hairs. Yellow pigment is absent in the agouti band of some hairs. Eumelanin granules in the basal portion of hairs is irregular or occurs as flocculent masses and is virtually absent at the tip. All-black guard hairs are absent.
Eye color is pink to dark red.
The eyes are less protruding than in the wild-type. Ears and tails are only slightly pigmented. This mutant is epistatic to the brown phenotype. The mutant appeared in the F 2 generation of a cross between P.m. sonotiensis and P.m. At least two recurrences of the mutation in Peromyscus are known.