PROCEEDINGS 



GENERAL MEETINGS FOR SCIENTIFIC BUSINESS 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON 



PAPERS. 



1. Coat Colour in Greyhounds. 

 By Adair Dighton, P.R.C.S., F.Z.S. 



[Animal Breeding Eesearcli Department, University 

 of Edinburgh.] 



[Received October 13, 1922 : Read Pebraavy 6, 1923.] 



Some months ago, my friend Mr. J. R, Robertson, knowing 

 that I was interested in both the problems of Heredity and in 

 Greyhounds, suggested that I should make extractions of their 

 various coat colours from the stud books, and tabulate them on a 

 definite plan with a view to ascertaining whether the results 

 accorded with Mendelian principles and with previous data 

 obtained by him from direct experiment. At the time Mr. 

 Robertson suggested this, I was too busy with other afiairs to 

 undertake it, but at the end of the last coursing season I began 

 what has been a hard but fascinatingly interesting work. 



By way of preface, I should explain that the National Coursing 

 Club is the ruling body in the coursing world, and under its 

 direction the Greyhound Stud Book is issued annually. A rule 

 of the Club stipulates that every litter of greyhounds must be 

 registered within two months of the date of whelping, with the 

 names of the sire and dam, and the colour (subject to correction 

 within six months of the date of whelping), sex, and number of 

 the puppies. In this way there is in the Greyhound Stud Book of 

 the present day an authentic record of every greyhound born. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1923, No. I. 1 



