Abstract
A VERY interesting specimen recently received at the London Zoological Gardens is a young albino reticulated python. Its eyes are pink, but the usual markings are present in orange-colour on the white skin. Albinism seems to be very rare in cold-blooded animals, but a few years ago the Gardens exhibited an albino cobra, and many years before that an albino common frog. The albino form of the axolotl, of which specimens can be seen in the aquarium, is bred in domestication like the ordinary black form, but all such specimens appear to have descended from one albino which came in the first consignment of live axolotls received in Europe during the last century. Albino or ‘silver’ goldfish are well known, and in the Zoological Society's aquarium can be seen white as well as golden specimens of common carp but these, again, are domesticated. Neither white axolotls, white goldfish, nor white carp have pink eyes, and so fall short of complete albinism. It has been noticed in birds that an albino or lutino specimen, if pink-eyed, retains its abnormal hue, but if normal-eyed, is liable to revert to type on moulting.
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Albinism in Wild Animals. Nature 130, 126 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130126d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130126d0