EXPERIMENTS WITH RABBITS 87 



in make, colour, nor action ' does it in any way re- 

 semble a zebra or a zebra-hybrid. 



6. A bay mare which had been in foal to Matopo 

 for some months miscarried. Here — if there is any- 

 thing in the direct infection theory — the unused germ- 

 cells of the zebra had a better chance than usual of 

 reaching the ova from which future offspring are to 

 arise, yet neither of the two foals which this mare 

 subsequently produced to a thoroughbred horse 'in 

 any way suggests a zebra.' 



The above is the record of the successful experi- 

 ments which have been tried at Penycuik, with a view 

 of throwing light on the existence of telegony in the 

 Equidae. Experiments have also been made with 

 other animals, such as rabbits, dogs, pigeons, fowls, 

 and ducks. Space allows us to quote but one. Six 

 white doe rabbits, all of which had borne pure white 

 offspring to white bucks, were crossed with wild 

 brown rabbits. The result was forty - two young 

 rabbits, all of a bluish-black colour, which in a very 

 short time turned to a brown. These, at the time of 

 writing, were about half grown, and Professor Ewart 

 tells us that it was almost impossible to distinguish 

 them from a full-blooded wild rabbit kept in the same 

 enclosure. The half-breeds, however, were tamer 

 and slightly lighter in colour. The mother does next 

 bred with white bucks again, and in every case bred 

 true. The pure white young showed no trace of 

 throwing back to a previous sire. 



A phenomenon somewhat similar to telegony, and 

 one which seems at present quite unexplained, is that 

 a hen which has been crossed with a cock of another 

 breed often lays eggs whose shell is no longer like 

 that of its own breed, but in colour, and frequently in 

 texture, resembles that of the breed with which it has 

 been crossed. Mr. Bulman has recorded a case of this 

 in the pages of ' Natural Science.' Some Orpington 



