INTRODUCTORY 7 



is required to keep their coats in order, free from any 

 knots or matting, and the colour untainted in the slightest 

 respect. 



I think they are still highly popular, as I have lately 

 had large classes before me of high quality and type. 



There is one variety that has come into great popu- 

 larity of late years, and seems, in vulgar parlance, to have 

 come to stay, and which is really a revival of an old 

 favourite with a new name. 



What we used to know when I was a boy as the 

 Spotted Butterfly has blossomed into the English rabbit ; 

 not that I find any fault with the title, for I think it 

 really represents what it is, and, after the wild rabbit 

 and the lop, it is probably the oldest variety of the family 

 with a strictly British origin. 



I remember the first rabbits I owned were of this 

 kind, but for a number of years they were rarely seen at 

 shows, and then chiefly in variety classes ; since then, 

 however, they have grown in numbers and quality, and 

 first-rate specimens have been often sold at highly satis- 

 factory prices. They have a large number of admirers 

 at the present day, and classes provided for them at very 

 many of the shows. 



Even as lately as the year 1902 I have had very 

 respectable entries of them, and of sufficient quality to 

 require great care in sorting out the best. 



I may say, for the benefit of those not knowing 

 this variety, that it is of medium size, white, with pre- 

 scribed black markings, comprising a mark much like a 

 butterfly on the nose, hence its old name, a trace down the 



