Subject: [Tweeters] The Term "Leucistic"
Date: Apr 16 07:55:39 2011
From: Mechejmch - mechejmch at aol.com



A few years ago, I photographed a totally snow-white Red-necked Grebe near the Alaska Ferry Terminal in south Bellingham. Its eyes were not pink so I had to be content to call it a partial albino Red-necked Grebe.
So be it.

Joe Meche
Bellingham






-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Bletsch <garybletsch at yahoo.com>
To: Barry Ulman <ubarry at qwest.net>
Cc: tweeters tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sat, Apr 16, 2011 7:36 am
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] The Term "Leucistic"


Dear Barry and Tweeters,
Barry brings up a good point.
It is interesting how the term "leucistic" seems to have replaced "albinistic."
There is an article on albinism in John Terres's 1980 "Encyclopedia of North
merican Birds." The term "leucistic" is barely mentioned; it is glossed under a
eparate article about color of feathers. The brief reference to "leucism"
ssigns this term to paleness of plumage, rather than to whiteness.
In the article on albinoes, "albinism" of various sorts and degrees is said to
efer to whiteness of plumage, skin, or eyes.
According to Terres, a blackbird with, say, two white primaries on each wing,
ould be called a partial albino.
Terres also mentions a type of albinism called "incomplete albinism." The
efinition that Terres gives for this condition is not clear to me, because it
eems to be a synonym for "leucism."
It might be added here that, in dictionaries from the early and mid 20th
entury, "albinism" and "leucism" were considered synonyms--but "leucism" is
mitted from most of those dictionaries, unless one finds an unabridged version.
hat term must have been rarely used.
Thus it appears that, some time in the mid-20th century, biologists sought to
efine their terminology. Albinism was reserved for cases involving white body
arts that lack melanin for whatever reason. Leucism was set upon as the term to
se in cases of pallor of such body parts.
However, it seems that nowadays there is a studied reluctance to use the
A-word" for any bird that does not have pink eyes and all-white plumage.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA garybletsch at yahoo.com Mentre che li
cchi per la fronda verde
iccava ?o s? come far suole
hi dietro a li uccellin sua vita perde, lo pi? che padre mi dicea: ?Figliuole,
ienne oramai, ch? ?l tempo che n?? imposto
i? utilmente compartir si vuole?.

-- On Fri, 4/15/11, Barry Ulman <ubarry at qwest.net> wrote:
> From: Barry Ulman <ubarry at qwest.net>
Subject: [Tweeters] The Term "Leucistic"
To: "Tweeters Bird Web" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Friday, April 15, 2011, 9:58 PM
Hi Tweets,

For the last several years or more, I
have seen people (including myself) refer to birds with
abnormal white patches in their plumage as "leucistic". In
the past it seems that such birds were called "partial
albino". Are leucistic birds the same as partial albino
birds, or are we talking about a whole different
phenomenon?

Barry Ulman
Bellingham,
WA._______________________________________________
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