noun
definition
Congenital excess of melanin pigmentation in the skin, hair, feathers and/or eyes.
Examples of melanism in a Sentence
In one direction the tabby shows a tendency to melanism which culminates in complete blackness, while in the other direction there is an equally marked tendency to albinism; grey cats, which may be regarded as tabbies whose stri p es have disappeared, forming the connecting link between the tabby and the white cat.
Perfectly black leopards, which in certain lights show the characteristic markings on the fur, are not uncommon, and are examples of melanism, occurring as individual variations, sometimes in one cub out of a litter of which the rest are normally coloured, and therefore not indicating a distinct race, much less a species.
This type of evolution has been called industrial melanism.
The blue eyes -and the white coat of the kitten indicate that the Siamese breed is a semi-albino, which when adult tends towards melanism, such a combination of characters being apparently unknown in any other animal.