No. 551] SHORTER ARTICLES AND DISCUSSION 



6X3 



It would certainly be interesting to try and find illustrations 

 of Galton's hounds, especially of the lemon and white ones of 

 tricolor parentage. 



In rabbits, there exist three wholly different classes of tricolor 

 animals. In the first place there are the real tricolors, those 

 animals which, if they were not partially albinistic, would be 

 irregularly spotted with black, agouti, blue or chocolate on a 

 yellow ground. They are comparable to the tricolor black- 

 yellow-white, blue-cream-white, etc., guinea-pigs and to the tri- 

 color eats. Secondly, there are those animals which are black 

 and tans, or blue (or chocolate) and tans, spotted with white. 

 These are comparable to the tricolor fox terriers, tricolor goats 

 and the so-called tricolor mice, which are sable, spotted with 

 white. 1 



Thirdly, there are those rabbits which, if not partially albin- 

 istic, would be " tortoise-shell," and which are comparable to 

 the spotted " tortoise" mice. 



I think Galton's hounds may have all been alike except for 

 the distribution of the pigmented patches on the coat. Those 

 hounds with the less white would then be called black and tan, 

 or sable; those with much white would be called tricolor, or 

 lemon and white, or even black and white, according as to where 

 the colored patches fell. 



I am not so sure Galton's black and tan hounds must neces- 

 sarily have been partially albinistic, as in dogs the partially 

 albinistic ones are generally so because of the presence of a 

 factor (or factors) absent from wholly colored ones. (In other 

 words, spotting with white is dominant in some dogs.) 



The distribution of the colored area over partially albinistic 

 animals assuredly depends upon the cooperation of so many 

 factors (amongst which there are very probably some non- 

 genetic ones) that on our hypothesis the production of tricolor 

 young from yellow and white parents, and vice versa, becomes 

 very well possible. 



Arend. L. Hagedoorn 



Verrieres le Buisson 



'"The Genetic Factors in the Development of the Housemouse," A. L. 

 Hagedoorn, Zeitschr. f. induM. Abst. und Veurbungslehre, 1911, Bd. VI, 



