On the island where I live we do not have the ubiquitous gray, bushy tailed squirrels found elsewhere in North America. We do have little red squirrels that people who aren’t familiar with them think are chipmunks. There are many of these red squirrels and, being an island, they interbreed and we get some strange “mutants”. Never seen a white or an albino squirrel but near my house are a bunch of completely black squirrels. I’ve never seen them anywhere else on the island. See next entry, on melanism.

Prince Arthur, one of Queen Victoria’s sons, in 1874. Wearing a velvet fringed mini-skirt, tights, ballet shoes, and draped with the entire fur coat (including tail) of a dead leopard.

I bought this postcard of Charles when I was a little kid and my family was in London visiting relatives. I remember thinking that one day I wanted to be a prince, albeit one with smaller ears.