BREEDING AND CARE OF RABBITS 



and do not match the body color. The tortoise comes 

 next and there are just a few Dutch breeders who 

 are paying any attention to the tortoise. They have 

 shown very little improvement in color.. The color 

 should be a bright orange, with nearly black shad- 

 ings. The shadings should be on the sides of the 

 body, becoming darker along the flanks, and brighter 

 near the shoulders. The forelegs, chest and back 

 should be shaded, and the jaws, cheeks and ears should 

 be dark. The tortoise sufifers from dark hairs com- 

 ing through and spoiling the beautiful orange color. 

 They also have weak colored ears. It is necessary to 

 have a stud buck with deep, rich colored ears, also 

 a good body color, and free from white hairs. 



The Blue Fawn should not be mentioned at all, 

 as it is a sport and is sometimes used in breeding 

 tortoise. The steel gray is one of the most popular 

 Dutch in England, but there are only a few speci- 

 mens in this country. A prize winner in the steel 

 gray is very hard to produce, but when you succeed 

 in producing it, you have something to feel proud 

 of and a color that is more lasting than any of the 

 others. In a class of the steel gray Dutch it is pos- 

 sible to see several different shades of steel gray, such 

 as sandy gray, light gray and steel blue gray. The 

 dark steel gray have too much black on their feet 

 and black ears. Medium steel gray is the proper 

 color. To produce it, blue gray does are crossed to 

 pure colored steel gray bucks. Steel grays should 

 show steel gray from their first coat. The breeder 

 often becomes discouraged by finding four or five 

 different colored youngsters in his litter, but they 



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