!B PET RABBITS, CAVIES, AND MICE. 



out, if you have hutch room. Whatever variety of the 

 rabbit family you select as your hobby, to breed it to 

 perfection you must proceed on certain well-defined 

 principles. If you are breeding for colour, say, and 

 wish to produce a sound black or blue, for instance, you 

 must mate blacks and blues. No foreign colours can 

 be introduced thereto without ill results. It is of no use 

 trying to make black white. If you are breeding for 

 shades, as in silvers, you will need to study the results 

 of the use of a certain sire and certain dams, and proceed 

 accordingly. You must think for yourselves, having 

 had certain broad principles laid down for your guid- 

 ance, but if you wish to deepen shade, you must use 

 those sires or dams that produce the shades. We do 

 not favour the generally accepted theory that colour is 

 always obtained from the sire. It depends upon ante- 

 cedents. To breed fancy rabbits successfully requires 

 the application of brain power. The fault of many 

 young fanciers is that their brains work too quickly, 

 consequently they think they have acquired more know- 

 ledge in a few months than many older men have done 

 in a lifetime. There is something besides knowledge 

 there is experience. Says an old and successful fancier: 

 " In breeding fancy stock there is that about it that 

 can only be gained by absolute practical experience. 

 You must inbreed to make headway; it is the sure road 

 to success, whether it be in horses, cattle, dogs, poultry, 

 or rabbits. It has to be done on common sense lines. 

 It is not in mating certain relations together, but o 

 correct faults. Study the points, and I don't care if you 

 mate brother and sister." 



We must now proceed to give a few hints on 



EXHIBITING. 



This is a branch of the fancier's curriculum which 

 is of the greatest interest. 3t must not always be 

 thought that the best specimens are shown to the best 

 advantage. But it is quite certain that no matter how 

 good a man's stock is, unless he can show it property, 

 he will often be worsted in the fray. ' In the first 

 place," says an old exhibitor, " don't overshow your 

 specimens, and don't forget that condition plays a very 

 important part in the show pen. Most of the best rabbit 



