CHAPTEK XY. 



PEDIGREE. 



A PEDIGREE is a record or statement of the ances- 

 tors of an animal, that serves as a guide in tracing 

 inherited characters. 



In itself considered it is not necessarily an evi- 

 dence of purity of blood, as animals of mixed blood 

 may have a recorded pedigree as well as those that 

 are purely bred. 



The first records of animals belonging to the dif- 

 ferent breeds are to some extent conventional, and 

 the details of the lineage are not always given with 

 the accuracy that is required in recording their de- 

 scendants. 



When animals in a particular locality have certain 

 general characteristics which they transmit with uni- 

 formity to their offspring, they are recognized as a 

 distinct breed. The descendants of these animals 

 may be bred for an indefinite period without any 

 published record of their ancestry, until the impor- 

 tance of the breed and its wider diffusion render it 

 desirable that a systematic record be made, that will 

 define its limits and enable breeders to readily trace 

 the various lines of descent that connect their animals 

 with the original representatives of the breed. When 



