44 PET RABBITS, CAVIES, AND MICE. 



work on them so much the better, but you must have 

 the work well broken up, not blotchy and smeary. In 

 the buck I want a rabbit with a soundly marked nose 

 and clear face and head; good saddle, and nice under- 

 neath; I must have all the leg spots there, and the 

 rabbit should be very light in body. These are the kind 

 of English I breed my winners from. I do not believe 

 in mixing the colours in breeding. By that I mean 

 mating tortoisesheils to blacks. Such a mating is a 

 great mistake, and if you do so you will get young ones 

 black and white, with dots of tortoiseshell colour in 

 amongst the black. You may safely and wisely mate a 

 black doe to a blue buck, only for the colour; but you 

 must not mate tortoise and black, or grey and black, or 

 tortoise and grey together, and expect to get sound 

 coloured youngsters. They want keeping separate. I 

 do not believe in mating greys with tortoisesheils, as so 

 many do. The result is you find with present day greys 

 tortoiseshell tints, which spoils the grey altogether. 

 You must never mate rabbits when either is in moult, as 

 the result will invariably be loose-coated young. Never 

 use a sire for three days after he returns from a show ! 

 I have my reasons for saying this, but shall reserve 

 them, leaving the reader to pure conjecture. I believe 

 in mating mother and son together, in English, but only 

 once; and sister and brother together, only once. Keep 

 the two best from these matings, and then mate them to 

 the father. This you will find a good way of keeping 

 your colour together, and you are certain to breed some 

 close to the standard required. Of course, I am writing 

 from experience gained in the process of breeding six 

 champions!" This should be explicit enough for the 

 requirements of any intending breeder of English 

 rabbits. We have, however, recently had an oppor- 

 tunity of fully discussing several points upon the breed 

 with Mr. Linley and other breeders, and all agree that 

 there is a regrettable tendency amongst breeders so to 

 mix colours that it is producing disparaging results in 

 more than one direction. In fact, it is having a some- 

 what similar result to that which has followed the mix- 

 ing up of colours in the breeding of Dutch. Black and 

 white English are spoilt, so far as purity of colour goes, 

 in many instances by the presence of white ticks, or 



