66 



COAT CHARACTERS IN GUINEA-PIGS AND RABBITS. 





ral young which died before their coat-character could be determined, 

 but all those which survived had hair much longer than that of the 

 ordinary short-haired animal. 



Further evidence of the recessive nature of long coat is afforded by 

 matings between long-haired and short-haired animals. Long-haired 

 c? 2002 (PI. i, fig. i), whose coat measures 14-17 cm., according to 

 condition, has been mated with 14 different short-haired females, pro- 

 ducing 58 young, all of which have hair under 5 cm. in length. 

 Nevertheless, the influence of the long-haired parent is frequently seen 

 in increased softness of the coat, though this is, as a rule, not longer 



rthan in the short-haired parent. 



When two long-haired animals are mated, one of which has longer 

 hair than the other, the offspring have a coat like that of the shorter- 

 haired parent, usually without, though sometimes with, interspersed 

 hairs of greater length (PI. 6, fig. 1 1 ) . In other words there is a strong 

 tendency for the shorter coat to dominate in all cases over the longer one. 

 Accordingly, evidence for the dominance of short coat in crosses 

 with long coat is fairly complete ; the evidence for the occurrence of 

 segregation in the next generation is less satisfactory, for, though there 

 occur among the offspring good long-coated and good short-coated 

 individuals, others show a poor development of the long coat, and the 

 whole number of long-coated animals exceeds that expected. Thus 

 hybrids, Sh. (.)* in character, mated inter se^ have produced thus far 

 13 Sh. to 7 Z., where 3 Sh. to i L. are expected, and long-haired animals 

 when mated with hybrids, Sh. (Z.), for the most part children of <? 

 2002 (see PI. i, fig. i) have produced 36 Sh. to 65 Z,., or nearly twice 

 as many long-haired as short-haired young, where equality of the two 

 sorts is expected. These young have been born to seven different long- 

 haired parents, and the excess of long-haired offspring appears among 

 the young of all except two of them, as follows : 



* L. = long-haired, Sh. = short-haired. 



