Abstract
IN her letter to NATURE of March 24 Miss I. Sollas remarks on the “canary-yellow” colour “in members of the stoat family when the winter whitening is incomplete,” adding, “there can thus be little doubt that the yellow body produced artificially in the fur of the albino rat is a substance similar to the yellow pigment of the stoat's winter coat. … I do not know whether it has been recorded, though I should have thought so, that a stoat's fur of the purest white will, after exposure to light in a museum case for a time, varying with the intensity of the light, invariably turn distinctly yellow—fainter, however, than “canary-yellow.” I have made no chemical or microscopical examination of fur so yellowed, but the usual reason assigned for the change is the absorption by the hairs of a small amount of fat out of the skin, induced by the light and heat of summer. I understand, also, that ermine kept in a dark chamber or box the temperature of which is high will also turn yellow. Stoats in this part of the country often become white early in the season before any real cold weather has occurred.
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FORBES, H. The Yellow Colour in the Stoat's Skin. Nature 83, 217 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/083217d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/083217d0
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