II 



COAT CHARACTEKS IN GUINEA-PIGS AND RABBITS. 



SPOTTED. 



The five principal color varieties of the cavy which have thus far 

 been described are alike known as self-colored (*. ., colored alike all 

 over), in distinction from the spotted or pied varieties, which will next 

 be noticed. Each of the four varieties, agouti, black, chocolate, and 

 yellow (including red), may become spotted with white either by 

 reduction in the extent of the pigment patches (as already explained), so 

 that they no longer meet and cover the entire body, or by the entire 

 absence of one or more of the typical color patches. The first-named 

 process produces such familiar manifestations of partial albinism as (i) 



FIG. 5. Coat pattern of J 2698. The cheek patches 

 are of black, the combined neck and right 

 shoulder patches red ; in the correspond- 

 ing area of the left side are a few black 

 hairs mixed with the red ; the side patches 

 are black, the minute rump patch mixed 

 red and black. 



Fie. 6. Coat pattern of <j> 1920. The left cheek 

 patch is black, the right one red and 

 black mixed. The right side and rump 

 patches are red, the left ones black. A 

 sharp line of division separates them 

 along the median plane both dorsally 

 and ventrally. 



a white spot or a longitudinal white streak on the belly of the animal, 

 where the side or shoulder patches fail to meet below, or (2) a white 

 throat, where the cheek patches fail to meet below, or (3) a white 

 blaze (forehead stripe) where they fail to meet above (fig. 5), or (4) 

 white feet, to which the shoulder and rump patches do not quite extend. 

 Dropping out of one or more entire pigment patches may produce an 

 asymmetrical white spotting, such as a white cheek, shoulder, or side. 

 The two processes, reduction in extent of the pigment patches and 

 dropping out altogether of certain pigment centers, usually progress 

 simultaneously, and when they occur symmetrically may result in such 



