THE INHERITANCE OF COAT 



COLOR IN GREAT DANES 



C. C. Little and E. E. Jones 

 Station for Experimental Evolution, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Cold Spring 



Harbor, Long Island, N. Y. 



I. HISTORICAL OUTLINE 



(a) Description of the Breed. — The 

 Great Dane is known to all dog breeders 

 as one of the most vigorous of the large 

 breeds. Its origin is somewhat in 

 doubt. Stonhenge (1873), in describing 

 the breed, notes its frequent description 

 under the name of Boar Hound and 

 states that it . . . "does not appear 

 to be a distinct breed, but rather a 

 compound of the greyhound, the mas- 

 tiff, and the terrier." On the other 

 hand, Leighton (1907) believes that the 

 antiquity of the breed is established 

 by the fact that representatives of a 

 type sufficiently similar to be consid- 

 ered its ancestors are found on early 

 Egyptian monuments. Its more recent 

 history appears to focus mostly on 

 Germany, where it has been given the 

 title of "Deutsche Dogge." For a 

 long time it was, in all probability, 

 crossed with other breeds of large 

 German dogs such as the Hatzriide, 

 which is a medium-sized dog about 

 intermediate in appearance between the 

 heavy and thickset "dogge" type of 

 the bulldog and the slimmer and less 

 powerful "hund" type. Other some- 

 what similar varieties with which it 

 may have been crossed are the Sau- 

 fanger, Ulmer Dogge, and Rottweiler 

 Aletzerghund. 



But whether the Great Dane be 

 considered as one of the oldest breeds 

 or not really has little influence, from 

 the viewpoint of the present investiga- 

 tion. It is sufficient that for a period 

 of at least fifty years they have been 

 recognized and selected with as great 

 care as have the other breeds of thor- 

 oughbred dogs. Their color varieties 

 are distinct and are well established as 

 follows : 



ih) Color Varieties of the Breed. — ■ 

 Stonhenge {loc. cit.) records the recog- 

 nized colors of this breed as follows: 

 "The color resembles that of the mas- 

 tiff, being brindled or fawn, but some- 

 times of a bluish slate with blotches of 

 brown." That several additional colors 

 appeared and were recognized within a 

 relatively short time is evident from 

 the description of the orthodox colors 

 given by Leighton, {loc. cit.) These 

 are, according to his statement, brindle, 

 fawn, blue, black, and harlequin. In 

 the brindle dogs the ground color may 

 be any shade from Hght yellow to dark 

 red-yellow, on which the brindle ap- 

 pears in darker stripes. The harlequin 

 should have, on a pure white ground, 

 fairly large black patches which must 

 be of irregular shape, broken up as if 

 they were torn. The standard of the 

 breed also states that, in harlequins, 

 fawn and brindle shades are undesirable. 



To reduce these color varieties to a 

 simpler basis from a genetic point of 

 view they may be listed as follows: 

 Black (Fig. 12, No. 3); blue (dilute 

 black) (Fig. 12, No. 6); harlequin 

 (black and white), (Fig. 12, No. 2); 

 brindle (Fig. 12, No. 4) — various shades 

 including a dilute or "blue" brindle 

 (Fig. 12, No. 7); fawn (Fig. 12, No. 5) 

 — various shades including a dilute 

 light, or "dove" fawn (Fig. 12, No. 8). 



The fawn is tawny with dark-brown 

 or black muzzle and feet. The dilute 

 fawn has a dull, faded silvery appear- 

 ance, quite well known to those who 

 have seen such color varieties of rodents 

 as dilute brown mice or dilute sooty 

 rabbits. Fawn is, moreover, easily 

 distinguishable from the yellow of 

 pointers which is a clear, yellow-orange 

 or lemon color, not nearly as rich or 

 heavy in shade as the more brownish 



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