

INHERITANCE IN GUINEA-PIGS. 



board our steamer during a stop made in the night at Pisco, the 

 the abort line of railway which leads down from lea to the 

 I found them the next morning in the "butcher-shop," con- 

 signed from lea to W . EL ( brace & Co. in Callao. I conclude that they 

 really did come from the ueighborhood of lea. (2) I saw no domesti- 

 ted guinea-pigs in Peru which were self-colored like these animals. 

 All domesticated ones which I saw in Peru, except albinos, were spotted 

 with white, or with yellow, or both. Self varieties are not fancied in 

 P< pu. \ arieties of this aort are not uncommon among the guinea-pigs 

 kept by European and American fanciers, but apparently they have 

 bushed only by careful and long-continued selection from the 

 1 Meek i iriginally introduced from South America. (3) The spotting 

 ..ugh character which have cropped out as recessives among 

 the descendants of the three lea animals are feebly expressed characters 

 which appear to have been almost obliterated, but which still come to 

 nor feebly under inbreeding. This is what we should expect 

 to find in a feral race acted upon by natural selection, conspicuous 

 nations like spotting tending to disappear. 



'( hrigina] stock. 



The 3 original lea animals or their inbred descendants mated inter se 



>■ produced 1 14 young, of which 62 have been golden agoutis, 49 sil- 



routis, and 3 blacks; 4 of the 114 have shown a small amount 



of white spotting, '1 have shown yellow spotting, and 1 has shown a 



ill amount of roughness of the coat. 



'1 he various matingn which have produced these young are classified 



in three group* in table 12, and the parentage of each animal which 



I pari in a mating i- shown in table 13, from which pedigrees may 



lily be drawn tracing back to the original trio. It will be observed 



m table L2 that silver agouti was derived from golden agouti as a 



and has bred true without exception (31 silver agouti young 



produced by silvr agouti parents). 



