It appears that both forms are acceptable -Leucistic, with a hard c,
sounds better.

Bill Kaufman
Woodinville, WA


on 10/16/06 5:31 PM, Mark Wensnahan at reganw at rockisland.com wrote:

> You might check out the article at Wikipedia
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucistic
>
> Mark
>
>
>
> At 10/16/2006, Douglas Canning wrote:
>> On 16 Oct 2006 at 10:48, Julia Allen, PhD, DVM wrote:
>>
>>> Trying to get the definition of the word used to describe the white
>>> Black-capped Chickadees - leucastic/leucistic/lecistic - various
>>> spellings of the word have appeared in postings.
>>>
>>> Merriam-Webster OnLine lists the word "leucitic" from the word
>>> leucite, a white or grey mineral (none of the other spellings were
>>> found.)
>>>
>>> If this is not the correct spelling, please advise.
>>
>> The correct spelling is, I believe, leucistic.
>>
>> The "leuc-" combining form is defined (in part) as "1. white:
>> colorless: weakly colored. (Webster's 7th New Collegiate Dictionary)
>>
>> Leucistic itself is not defined even in Webster's unabridged
>> dictionary. It seems to be a biological term.
>>
>> My interpretation from the previous discussion of this on Tweeters is
>> that, ornithologically, leucistic is used to describe a bird with pale
>> to nearly white plumage, in whole or in part.
>>
>> This compares with the term albino which describes an individual with
>> abnormally all white plumage (or fur) and generally red eyes.
>>
>> Be interesting to see what other definitions we come up with.
>>
>> Doug
>>
>> *******************
>> Douglas Canning
>> Olympia, Washington
>> dcanning at zhonka.net
>> *******************
>>
>>
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>
> Mark Wensnahan
> Ballard/Seattle
> reganw at rockisland.com
>
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