ON HEEEDITY IN RABBITS. 303 



yellow and less black than the wild grey; but, curiously enough, 

 not one was a true yellow-grey like the Belgian grand-parent. 

 The blacks of the second generation had black coats with no 

 trace of the yellow pigment of the grey parents ; all appeared to 

 be shaded more or less with the brown pigment which is always 

 associated with black, especially when the coat is moulting. 



The nest coat was jet-black, but, in common with other black 

 rabbits, after the first moult a few white hairs appeared, chiefly 

 on the back and loins ; these apparently increase in number with 

 each moult, and a few have already developed these white hairs 

 to such an extent as to almost resemble the well-known '' Silver 

 Grey " breed of the fanciers (" Chinchilla " of Darwin). It is 

 hardly necessary to say that the so-called " Silver Grrey " has no 

 resemblance whatever to the wild grey, being a pure^ black 

 breed when young; afterwards a number of white hairs 

 appear among the black, giving it that silvered appearance so 

 much admired by fanciers. The black individuals were easily 

 distinguished from the grey ones at birth, their pigmented skin 

 being a shade darker and covering the whole body, unlike the 

 greys, in which the ventral area is but little pigmented, being- 

 pink or flesh-coloured. 



The hybrid greys of the first generation, mated back with one 

 of the original vy^hites, also gave a mixture of greys and blacks 

 but only a few^ were raised. 



The matings were as follows : — H 5 x W 2|gave 6 greys and 

 3 blacks, and H 8 x "W 2 gave 5 greys and 1 black. 



(c) Third Generation (Fg). 



The blacks of the second generation extracted from the 

 hybrid greys of the first generation have, so far, bred true when 

 mated with one another*. 5 individuals tested together gave 16 

 young, all blacks with no trace of yellow pigment. The followimi- 

 were the matings : E B 20 X E B 28 gave 6 blacks ; E B 33 x 

 E B 28 gave 6 blacks ; and E B 54 x E B 41 gave 4 blacks. 

 (For further results showing the purity of the extracted blacks, 

 see Table 22.) 



One of the extracted blacks E B 28 was mated with the pure 

 grey Gr 7, producing 7 grey young. 



* Excluding the albinos thrown, which have been already dealt with under 

 Sect. 2, p. 298. 



