The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-07
ALBINO FREAKS.
Lots of White Birds and Animals After
the Hard Winter.
From the New York sun

HIOul tlit INV 1OTh sun
Norwich. April 20-Eastern COnnecti-
cut sportsmen have had great luck this
season bagging albino beasts and birds,
and they are at a loss to account for the
phenomena. The past winter. it is well
known, was terribly severe on northern
animals, with deep SHOWS, often crusted,
that buried their natural food. and those
that survived came up through great
tribulatiOn. Maybe the tribulation whit
ened the albinOs. At any rate an unusu-
ally large number of animals. curiOuslY
colored, have been bagged in this region
Perhaps the most remarka BILE specimen
belongs to DR.. G. O. Main of North StOn-
ington, in this county, a pure white gray
squirrel that was captured by Clarence
Palmer in a dense swamp in that town
1t manifestly belongs to the gray squirrel
race, because it has all the characteristics
of the species, except that of color 1t has
pink nostrils and toes.
White blackbirds are not extremely
rare; once i'll while an albino bObolink
robin or crow is seen, and three white
red squirrels have been shot in Norwich
in the past two or three years but no
one in this land had ever heard of a per-
fectly white gray squirrel before. Mr.
Palmer gave his squirrel to DR.. Main,
who has it in a handsome cage in his of
fee and is very proud of it.
Fremont d. Palmer, fireman on the
Norwich and Worcester division of the
New York and New England railroad
while iOurneying north on his engine re
Gently saw a hawk as white as milk
perched in the peak of an oak by the road
side. The train was moving slowly, and
Fremont had a good view of the, which
he believes is a re-tailed hawk. He re-
ported the freak to a brother sportsman
who hunted for it several days without
success. On another occasion Palmer saw
a white robin III a Clump of bushes near
the railroad track,
While securing the woods on Hall Hill.
noar Portland, in the Connecticut valley,
some time ago, Frank Gould and a friend
flushed an almost perfectly white part
ridge the second bird of the kind ever
started by Connecticut sport sman. The
partridge. big, fat fellow, was a dozen
rods away from the hunters, in thick
underbrush. and they didn't get a shot at
him. lie was of like shot and the
booming sound he made in his fight CON
WINGED Gould that he was real live part
ridge and not the ghost OF a grouse. The
sportsman knew museum man in Hart
ford, who, he was sure, would give 50 or
$50 for that bird. dead or alive, so he
hunted him for two hours, but vainly.
The head, neck, and body of the part
ridge were entirely white, while his
wings and tail We're of the rich brown
color common to the ruffed grouse Two
years ago a Haddam hunter Ragged a
similar bird near his home on the bank of
the Connecticut river
Not many days later WinslOw Cayles of
North Lyme, in the southwestern part of
this county, also in the Connecticut val
ley. shot the queerest looking coon ever
killed in the state. The animal was
curlcd up in ball at the top Of a tall tree
and looked exactly like a diminutive bear
cub. His fur was as black as ink Cayles
knocked him of mis- porch with charge
Of heavy shot. slung him over his shoulder
and went home, all the time wondering
what in the world he had bagged. He
believed it was coon, but who ever
heard of ring-tailed, grayish- brown coon
in deep mourning before2 The man was
completely mystifed. Arrived in the
grocery in the hamlet of North Lyme,
Caylcs threw his game on the counter,
and said to the company Of sitters
there: Here, you fellers, tell US what
sort of a beast this thing is; I'm blest if
know The store party, several men,
bers being among the most expert hunters
in the district critically examined the
game and pronounced il TO he. unquestion-
ably, sure and true raccoon, " but. thev
added, they had never seen or heard of
such a freak before. The record of New
England coon HuuJlng mas mourning ABOUT
Jet black COOns, and Cayles coon may be
the only one of the sort ever noted. Not
long ago Windham county farmer bagged
a fine, large grounding, whose fur was as
black and Mstrous as if il had been
vanished by an expert New York boot
black.
Deacon Jones-Tou know by giving 20
the poor you lend 10 the Lord.
SynncN But if don't give 10 the poor
J can lend my money 40 5 per cent. That's
business.