222 



The Journal of Heredity 



Many brookei X brookci matings 

 were made and invarial)ly yielded noth- 

 ing but creamy-white black-eyed indi- 

 viduals, but it was remarkable that fe- 

 males were relatively rare. 



Mr. Brooke sent some of the males 

 to me and the results of the breeding 

 work carried out in this Department are 

 given below. 



The rarity of the brookei female is 

 again noteworthy. 



Several matings of brookei X brookei 

 have been made and the progeny are 

 invariably black-eyed creamy- whites, no 

 matter how the parents were obtained. 



The outstanding characteristics of 

 this new variety of Mus rattiis are the 

 bulging jet-black eye, the creamy-white 

 body color, and the slaty color of the 

 skin of the ears and tail. Every op- 

 portunity has been offered both by Mr. 

 Brooke and by myself for the mating 

 of these rats with the fancy rat (norve- 

 gicus), but no such mating has oc- 

 curred. The two species live together 



harmoniously and will foster each oth- 

 er's young. Individuals fostered by 

 tame norvegicns does and handled fre- 

 quently from their earliest days become 

 just as tame as their foster parents and 

 give up their nocturnal habits. 



The breeding results suggest that the 

 mutant variety of the Old English 

 Black Rat has a coat color, which be- 

 haves as a recessive character when 

 tested against the black coat color of 

 the parent stock. 



The specimens referred to as fawns 

 were not quite similar in color to fawn 

 "fancy" rats or mice, being more bis- 

 cuit-colored. They were also rather 

 paler than the Fawn Rattiis rotfus pro- 

 duced by Hagedoorn and Bonhote. dif- 

 fering from the latter also in that their 

 eyes were always black, whereas Bon- 

 hote records of his Fawns that their 

 eyes were dark ruby when young, dar- 

 kening with age as in the Cinnamon 

 Canarv. 



A British Journal of Experimental Biology 



HITHERTO there has existed in 

 Great Britain no journal which 

 served specifically for the publi- 

 cation of researches in experimental 

 biology lying outside the confines of 

 genetics on the one hand, and tradi- 

 tional human physiology on the other. 

 American workers who have created a 

 powerful impetus towards experimental 

 inquiry in biological science will, it is 

 hoped, welcome the announcement that 

 a British Journal of Experimental 

 Biology will appear in September, 

 1933, issued by Messrs. Oliver & Boyd, 

 from the Animal Breeding Research 

 Department at Edinburgh. While a 

 primary object of the Journal will be 

 to promote in Great Britain the exten- 

 sion of inquiry along experimental 



lines, it is the earnest hope of the Edi- 

 torial Board that American and conti- 

 nental scientists will give their support 

 not only by subscribing but also by of- 

 fering contributions for publication. 



All communications should be ad- 

 dressed to the Managing Editor, the 

 Animal Breeding Research Department, 

 the University, Edinburgh, Scotland. 

 F. A. E. Crew, 

 W. J. Dakin, 

 J. Heslop Harrison, 

 Lancelot T. Hogben, 

 Julian S. Huxley, 

 J. Johnston, 

 F. H. A. Marshall, 

 Guy C. Robson, 

 A. M. Carr Saunders, 

 J. MacLean Thompson, 



