BREEDING AND CARE OF RABBITS 



tail of the butterfly is usually called the "nose fork." 

 A perfectly marked nose is very rare. One of the 

 common weaknesses is the white color running into 

 the wing of the butterfly, and spoiling the even cir- 

 cle of the wing. Some have it on both wings, while 

 on some it is more marked than on others. Never 

 purchase stock with this failure. A disqualification is 

 the "putty nose," which is a small white or flesh 

 colored spot appearing in various sizes on different 

 specimens, but nearly always on the end of the nose. 

 There is only one use for such a specimen and that is 

 as meat stock. Poor "nose forks" are very common. 

 Some have none at all, while others have crooked 

 ones. This is also a very bad point. White hairs in 

 the nose is another bad fault. The eye circle and 

 cheek spot come next. The eye circle should be a 

 perfect circle or oval around the eye, and not too 

 wide. The cheek spot should be under each eye, but 

 not touching the eye circle. There is no record of a 

 single specimen having been produced with perfect eye 

 circles and cheek spots. Some have heavy eye circles 

 without an eye spot, while others have circles that 

 are not uniform in size. The illustration will show 

 you very plainly how the failures appear. There 

 should be but one spot on each cheek. Some speci- 

 mens have several cheek spots. The ears come next 

 and very good ears appear on the different speci- 

 mens. They should be solid in color and free from 

 white running up into the ear. The ear color and 

 white at the joining should cut off sharp. Pale col- 

 ored ears is another fault usually found on blues and 

 tortoise. Flesh colored tips are also found quite 



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