212 The Law of Äncestral Heredittj 



(ii) Socerer was a Mack horsc, sou of tlie black Tniinpator, out of Yoiing 

 Giantess, a bay. But tlio four graiidparciits of Socerer were two chcstmits, a 

 brown and a bay, aud of the eiglit great-yraiidparents seveii were bays and of one, 

 the Snap Mare, I have not been able to ascertain the colour. Wliere did Socerer 

 and Truinpator gct their blackness from ? Snap was brown, but bis niatcrnal 

 grandsire was the black horse Gypsij. In the same way Rinaldo black w-as born 

 of the chestnut Whiskey Mare covered by the brown stallion Milo, but in the 

 fourth and fifth geueration baokwards comes in the black Gypsy blood through the 

 brown stallion Snap. 



(iii) A bay tilly is the result of crossing the chestnut stallion General 

 Graham and the grey Beninyborouyh Mare. The chestnut stallion Prophet 

 and the grey mare Virago give a grey filly. The chestnut stallion Woodpecker 

 and the gre}' Herod Mare give a chestnut fill}' Chestnut SIcin. Clearly the coat- 

 colour of the parents will not dehne that of the offspring. The bay filly, however, 

 of the General Graham and Bi-ninghorough Mare cross is elucidated when we 

 know that while it had one chestnut aud one grey grandparent, it had two bays 

 for gran(l])arcnts. 



I could multiply these pedigrees indefinitely, but the above will be suflficient 

 to demonstrate the point for horses, i.e. the coat-colour of a horse inay be un- 

 intelligible unless we examine the ancestry. We may e;isily find otfspriiig of 

 all shades froni grey to black, whose parents had the saine colour, say both bays. 



I now pass to dogs. Let us first take Basset Hounds. Here the colours 

 are lemon, white and black, and if tliey all occur the houud is ternied tricolour. 



(i) In 1SS5 the tricolour bitch La Fanfare put to the tricolour dog 

 Bourbon gave the tricolour pup Bluette, — melanism appeared in the offspring. 

 In the same year the tricolour bitch Queen Dido covered by the tricolour dog 

 Bourbon gave the lemon and white pup Blonde, or melanism disappeared. In 

 1887 the lemon and white bitcli Jessie crossed with the lemon and white dog 

 K. Bendigo gave the tricolour hound Bendigo II. Thus when melanism is present 

 in the parents it may be abseilt in the children, or when absent in the parents, it 

 may reappear in the children. 



(ii) His Lordship was tricolour, but his parents Scipio and Fama were only 

 lemon and white. His black becomes quite explicable when we note that of his 

 four grandparents two were tricolour. 



(iii) Or, in the same litter, the tricolour bitch Iris by the tricolour dog 

 Count casts five hounds of which three are tricolour and two lemon and white 

 only. It is thus impossible to predict from the character of the parents whether 

 black will or will not appear in the offspring. But here again ancestry throws 

 light on the matter. Counl's parents i^gly and Rosalind II. were both lemon 

 and white and Count got his black from his paternal grandparents, who were both 

 tricolour. Of Ins' parents one showed melanism and the other did not. 



