DOMESTICATED NATURE 



283 



it is done in the fancier spirit toward the 

 development of the ideal of variety and 

 type to which it belongs, becomes a mat- 

 ter of scientific study of no mean propor- 

 tions. Results must be studied, mis- 

 takes corrected, several generations 

 sometimes being needed to correct a 

 single, simple blemish. But thought 

 and care will bring you nearer and 

 nearer to the perfect specimen. There 

 is little probability that chance will 

 produce results except in isolated and 



FUR PULLED BY THE MOTHER RABBIT FROM 



HER BREAST FOR ONE NEST. 



Piled on a plate to show size of pile. 



extremely rare cases, and in such the 

 return to the faults of the parent and 

 grandparent is usually pronounced. 



When an active fancier of cavies, a 

 railroad man, with whom I had discus- 

 sed some of the ideals for which we 

 were trying, and to whom I remarked 

 that a white cavy with blue instead of 

 pink eyes seemed to me a desirable 

 type to produce, discovered on a trip to 

 Washington what seemed to be this 

 type, he purchased the pig, a female, 

 and sent it to me. I determined to try 

 to produce a strain that would breed 

 true, like reproducing like. The pig 

 sent me had about five colored hairs 



THE \"ERY VOUM; RABBITS IN THE NEST OF 

 FUR. 



near the scruff of the neck. I selected 

 a pure albino mate. The young of the 

 first mating showed of three one albino 

 and two with some decided red patches. 

 The albino was a male and I kept him 

 and bred him with his dam and one of 

 the red spotted ones to the sire. The 

 next litters both showed a boar in one and 

 two sows, in the other male nearly all 

 white but having females a little more 

 colored than the original dam. These 

 were again crossed on the preceding 

 parents that were either albino or 

 showed the least color. By this care- 

 ful crossing and recrossing at the end 

 of twenty months I had two pairs of 

 white pigs with blue eyes that bred one 

 or two reproductions of themseves in 

 every litter. There would also be a re- 

 version to the patched or to the albino ; 

 had I been able to continue these ex- 

 periments for another year there is no 



RABBITS A FEW DAYS OLD. 



