ON HEEEDITY IN RABBITS. 285 



extreme diiFerence in their length, but also in their texture. 

 The Angora coat is finer and softer in texture than the short 

 coat, and, unless constantly combed out, quickly becomes matted 

 and woolly, unlike the short fur, which lies back quite flat. 



As already noted, both kinds of coat breed true when mated 

 with their own kind. 



(a) First Generation (F,). 



]So. 1 doe with short coat mated with No. 2 buck with Anoora 

 coat produced 26 hybrids with short coats. 



The reverse cross. No. 3 doe with Angora coat mated with 

 No. 4 buck with short coat, produced 16 hybrids with short coats. 

 In general appearance the hybrid short coats were indistinguish- 

 able from the pure short coat, the influence of the Angora 

 character not being apparent. A careful examination, however, 

 revealed what appeared to be faint traces of the Angora influence 

 in both length and texture. The hairs of the hybrid coat were 

 slightly longer, seemed softer to the touch, and were apparently 

 more densely distributed than in the pure short coat. At the 

 same time it must be admitted that these apparent traces of 

 the Angora influence were so small, that had one not known the 

 Angora parentage it would never have been suspected. In Men- 

 delian terras, therelbi'e, short coat may be said to be dominant 

 over Angora coat, which is recessive. 



Further experiments recently carried out show that the short 

 coat of other races, as well as tlie Belgian Hare, is similarly 

 dominant over the Angora coat. Altogether, 87 hybrids have 

 been raised by crossing shorts with Angoras, and all have short 

 coats, no matter whether the Angora was used as the male or 

 female parent. It appears, therefore, that in these cases the 

 phenomenon of dominance is jjeculiar to the character itself, 

 and is not in any way influenced by change of sex, change of 

 individual, or change of race. 



The follovang table gives the results of the individual matings. 

 S = pure short coat, A = pure Angora coat, and the numbers 

 attached to these letters refer to the individual animals used. To 

 save repetition, it may be noted that the doe is placed first 

 throughout the matings ; e. ^., S 1 x A 2 is No. 1 doe with short 

 coat mated with No. 2 buck with Angora coat ; Nos. 1, 4, 13, and 



