IN-BREEDING 229 



own sire, producing two litters of six and seven each. 

 Female No. 2, a daughter of No. 1, was bred to Designer, 

 her own sire, who was also her grandsire. She produced 

 a litter of eight. Female No. 3, a daughter of No. 2, 

 was bred again to Designer, her own sire, who was also 

 her grandsire and great-grandsire. Female No. 4 was 

 again bred to Designer, her own sire, who was also 

 her grandsire, great-grandsire and great-great-grandsire. 

 She produced a litter of eight. Thus in turn Females 

 Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8 were bred to their own sire, Designer. 

 Female No. 8, resulting from this long-continued in-breed- 

 ing, was bred to her own son, and from the litter result- 

 ing a brother arid sister were selected and in-bred. Mr. 

 Rhys states that, " I see no evidence of decrease in size 

 of bone, in constitution or in fertility as a result of my 

 experience in in-breeding fox terriers." The only pecul- 

 iarity which has been observed in the later generations 

 as compared with the original animals is a slight lack of 

 courage or " nerve " in the later animals. A normal fox 

 terrier never flinches in the face of sudden danger. 



The illustration, Plate XIV, lower, represents Designer 

 II, at four months old, one of the seven dogs in the 

 eighth generation of continuous in-breeding. Every litter 

 for eight generations was sired by Designer I. The illus- 

 tration, Plate XIV, upper, pictures the dog Dispatcher of 

 the ninth generation, son of own brother and sister. 



214. Cornevin's 1 experiments. The French breeder 

 and author, Cornevin, practiced in-breeding with swine, 

 cattle and sheep for considerable periods without injury. 

 He in-bred Jersey cattle for seven years, Hollander cattle 

 for twelve years, and Merino sheep eleven years without 

 observing any evidences of degeneracy. His experi- 



1 Cornevin, "Traite de Zootechnie Generate " (1891). 



