Ann Storey
The General conformation standard for Fancy rats was published in Walter Maxey’s ‘How to breed and Exhibit fancy mice and rats’ 2nd Ed 1910, but presumably was circulated before then. From what I can gather, the standards were published separately, possibly in a rule book but I haven’t seen a copy of one so can’t say for sure. Most booklets of this type do not survive well and in addition they often get tossed out when the owners die.
“The rat should be of good size, long and racy in shape, arched over loin, plump and firm, but not fat, with clean, long head, not too fine or pointed at the nose. The eyes should be bold and prominent, and of good size. Ears, nose and tail should be free from warts or roughness, and the coats in all rats should be close, soft and glossy, sleek to the touch and not too long. In bucks the coat is apt to be somewhat harder and longer than in does. The tail should be well set on, thickish at butt end, clean and tapering to a fine point, the length being about equal to the rat’s body from end of muzzle to root of tail. The ears should be of good size and tulip shaped, carried erect, and not to be set too closely together. In Selfs, feet, ears and tail should be slightly covered with fur, as nearly as possible the colour of the fur on the body.“
During this time a number of new varieties were developed and introduced, including many that we now have, although some proved to be non starters. Genetics was still taking baby steps, which I’ll discuss in a later article and at this point virtually no fancier understood anything about it. In some cases though, just as some people still do today, they managed to get the right answer even if it was for the wrong reason. Still it has been very interesting to look at the way they got there.
In 16/7/09 ST writes the following, ‘during the last few days a letter has come into my possession, the writer of which vouches for the existence of a blue-grey even of the hooded and striped type, and although it is questionable whether this would not moult out to black as the rat reached maturity, it certainly opens up the possibility of what may be accomplished by scientific breeding’.
Another report of a possible blue rat turns up in a column written by MD on 12/4/12. Someone using the pen name of ‘Mus rattus’ reported to her that they had bred a buck whose nest fur was blue and who later moulted out to be chocolate brown.
In 19/9/12 MD reports ‘Mr H Smith, Walsall, writes; After a lot of careful breeding I have bred a blue and white rat of good colour…..In the same litter I have bred a buck very much inclined to be a blue’. Mary congratulates the author but points out this tendency to moult out into blacks. (As a point of interest this happened to me a long time ago, long before I was an NFRS member. In my case they were a litter of pure bred black hooded who all appeared to be blues, at least until the second moult) MD herself writes in WM’s book ‘As far back as 1905 I had a litter of 4, which varied in colour from very dark blue to a light silvery blue. They were bred, I think, by black and agouti parents, but of this I cannot now be certain, unfortunately they all moulted out black on losing their nest fur.’
MD also theorised that as blue and cream were closely allied in cats (true) then maybe it would be possible to use creams (Recently discovered, see below) in some way to produce blues. Unfortunately their cream rats were either buffs or champagne, but she was not to know that.
In 1977 F&F reprinted a series of articles written by Eric Jukes entitled the ‘Origins and History of the Fancy Rat’. In one of these he reports that the best blue rat ever seen and which won the Breeder’s cup at Bristol (date not given but possibly 1915) and was described as being ‘as good as any mouse’ later moulted out to be a good chocolate. This was from one Mr Baker, who at the time was breeding chocolates. ‘Blues’ writes Eric ‘were a non starter as they never sustained their colour through the moult’. Eric considered that these rats may have been dark lilacs but I’m inclined to think that they may have been minks.
Previously I wrote about the appearance of the fawn rat, which we would now either call silver fawn or topaz, which will become clear later. This mutation(s) had been noticed by both Jack Black the rat catcher and Jimmy Shaw the publican in the 1850’s who were said to have bred them, however all the fawn rats bought into the fancy seem to have been of wild extraction, which is another piece of evidence that the domestic rat did not evolve from the rat pits. The fawns seem to have turned up from several sources in 1910, all from wild rats.
By 2/12/10 Mr T Robinson from Leyland seems to have acquired a wild bred fawn doe. MD recommends mating her to a wild agouti caught in the same area. However, Mr Robinson disliked the idea of an agouti being caged because it reminded him of a ‘caged bear continually trying to get free’. He then asks if it would be ok to mate it to a black.
Mr Robinson writes the following on 6/1/11;
‘Mr Borrows and Mr Alcock of Liverpool, came over to Leyland to see my fawn rat on 24th Dec, and Mr Borrows bought both his fawn doe and his silver grey for my inspection. In the following notes I’ll try to describe as far as is in my power, both the fawn and the silver grey. The fawn is about three parts grown, very deep rich red colour, both top and under, rich red feet, good ears, fawn to the tips, A1 condition, coat like silk and extraordinary length of tail – I have never seen a rat with a longer tail. In shape the rat is built on the same lines as the exhibition mouse, being long and racy. The rat is not very large but is of medium build, and in my opinion is a descendent of Mus rattus’. (Rattus rattus or the black or ship rat, these do or at least have occurred in various colour forms). She was also said to be very tame. Rattus rattus are normally said to be extremely nervous, but I can vouch for the fact that if one does become tame, then they really are the most delightful pets.
Mr Robinson goes on to say ‘Prehaps Mr Burrows will give the readers of F&F his opinion of my fawn, which is not as rich as his, but is larger, being a descendent of the Brown rat, Mus decumanus.’ If he did, I’ve not managed to find it.
According to the 3rd ed of WM’s book (1921 and largely rewritten by H C Brooke, as by this time WM was out of the picture) , Mr Robinson’s doe was given to a Mr Tilling, and allegedly was very tame and won the club show at Bristol in 1912. She was also said to be black eyed. As this rat would have been born in 1910, I wonder if it was the same rat. This doe, despite her tameness, ‘killed a number of bucks before she met her match in a savage old black buck, who mastered her after a terrific battle. The progeny from the first cross, just as in the case of Mr Marriott’s cream (more of this later) were all wild coloured. These, mated together, produced a proportion of fawns and creams.’
H. C Brooke continues later.
‘Many of these (BE fawns and creams) were exported by Mr Tilling to both America and the Continent. They did a lot of winning, and to my mind are handsomer than the PE variety. They entered largely into the composition of the early chocolates and of such attempts at blues as we have.’ This makes all sorts of sense, as Topaz carrying blacks can indeed come out as chocolates. Later, ‘I said just now that all our present day fawns (by 1920) are pink eyed, but have we really any self fawns in 1920? I rather think we have only silver fawns.’
The second person instrumental in the introduction of fawns and creams was Mr Marriott, who’s report on how they came about was reported by the well known early geneticist Castle in 1914. This was in a paper written for the American Naturalist 48:254 Yellow Varieties of the Rat. This was reported in F&F by MD in 1915 and is as follows:
‘ The first rat with any semblance of fawn in it that I had was caught in a trap in a provision (grocery) merchant’s premises in Chesterfield. You could scarcely call it a fawn, but more of a cream or dirty white. I also had four others similar to this one, two caught in the same place and two caught at a malthouse in close proximity to the other premises. In all three bucks and two does, but the only one that I was able to get to breed was the first brought to me which was a buck. When first bought to me it was very wild. In fact, it appeared to me to be more wild than an ordinary wild rat. It was a source of trouble getting it to mate, killing no less than 20 does before mating. I eventually got it mated to two does, one a pure white for at least 10 generations (they didn’t understand albino genetics but more of this later) and one black and white hooded and striped or Japanese rat. The results of the pure cross was two young, a buck and a doe, which were agoutis with no white at all. The result from the Japanese cross was seven young- five does and two bucks- which were the colour of irish agoutis, being agouti colour with a white stripe running underneath. These results naturally caused me great disappointment as I was expecting a fawn coloured young one. When the young were old enough I mated Father and daughter ; result nil, mother and son; result nil. The brother and sister from the pure white cross produced two fawn coloured rats a buck and a doe, and five agoutis. The brother and sister mating from the Japanese cross produced two fawn and white Japanese, one cream and white Japanese, one black and white Japanese and four agoutis. The fawns and fawn and whites resulting from these crosses were much deeper in colour than their wild grandsire. Mated one with another they gave a proportion of about 2 two fawn coloured or fawn and white in 7 young. I may say in conclusion that the original wild rat was in shape of body, skull etc as the ordinary brown or agouti rat that we have running wild in this district.’
I’ll be coming back to this Castle paper when I discuss genetics and what was known of it at the time, as it is, this paper is the one where Castle first designated r (red eyed dilute) and p (pink eyed dilute).
The first mention I can find about in the show reports for these colours is the Barnsley mouse show for July 1911. ‘Even or variegated; 3 and novelty special, Marriott, fawn even. Only a youngster, pretty variety!’ The judge was one Mr J Middleton. Also ‘AV under 12 weeks, r, Marriott, fawn even, brother to novelty sp winner but not so nicely marked’. (No idea why the two rats were in different classes). At a show held in Liskeard, Cornwall, in 1912, where MD was stewarding, she reports on this venue (which appears to be a new one) that ’the only drawback, which I simply regret, was that at the time of judging the light was so bad that Mr Marriott’s beautiful self cream rat was taken for a bad white, and in consequence did not get the place it must otherwise have taken. Later in the day the light improved and the cream revealed itself – but too late, as the awards were made.‘
Later in January 1913, MD writes – ‘I am wondering if fawn and white rats are peculiarly sensitive to damp. I have had several given to me lately but none have done well and several have died. Mr Tilling, also writes that on his return he found that a number of his fawn and whites had died, and Mr Marriott’s stock has also suffered terribly’.
By 19/12/13 MD reports, ‘the new varieties, I’m pleased to see, continue to make progress. We now have BE and PE self fawn, fawn and white, BE self cream and a third colour, which I’m at present calling biscuit. This colour is lighter, with less yellow in it than fawn and so far I’ve not seen a self version, only Japanese.‘
The rat fancy as has been said was obsessed with breeding rats to the same standards as the mice. So hooded started off being called evens (spotted or striped) for the first ten years or so of the fancy. Quite early in the fancy it appears that the he or extreme hooded allele appeared. Indeed I’ve already mentioned this in PRA 239. These were in the hands of several breeders (including the Mr Wilkes mentioned in PRA 239) and at least one person averred that his father had a dutch marked rat back in the ‘60’s (1860’s that is). This allele produced both capped – which they considered the forerunner of Dutch- and variegated. These were called brokens if the spots or markings were unevenly distributed and evens if they were evenly placed, so the rat that we would now call a capped was then called an even. Variegateds could also be called evens if the markings were evenly placed. They may have had hn, or notch as well, because some people had rats with blazes he, and others without, (more likely hn).
Belly spots were common and controversial. Mr Nunn (who was the joint owner with Mary Douglas of the Virgonian rabbitry, breeding English among others, although I’m not sure how this worked as he lived in Shildon, Worcs and she lived in Cornwall) writes in 20/1/11 ‘If belly spots are ignored, you spoil the chances of brokens in rats, rightly placed, these are an attractive addition and brokens are unlikely to be bred if the underspots are bred out. What you want is to try to work them up from the belly to the sides. I think the some judges don’t pay attention to rats in examining for spots.' I think that many of us would sympathise here, with the judge who is so caught up with one fault (often minor) that they ignore all the rest. The broken std for rats at the time stated ‘must be free from belly spots’ whereas Mr Nunn wanted ‘must show belly spots correctly placed’. Mr Nunn goes on to say that judges should ‘allow for the wind’ with all new varieties (that is, put them up!) or you wouldn’t get any. Bearing in mind there were no provisional or new variety classes then as they all got lobbed into AOV, he had a point. MD agreed with this and they go on to give many examples, like a ‘dutch’ rat with an inch of saddle. As if to give weight to his opinion on breeding broken rats ‘I consider (and I have had 30 years in breeding to line marked and brokens in English and Dutch rabbits) that such take more getting than selfs.’
It’s worth pointing out that once more they were trying to fit the vari into the mouse broken std. Also interesting it that classing belly spots as a fault was a point of discussion. When vari’s were standardised by the NFRS the only reason why belly spots were faulted was there were more rats without them than with them, but the vari std was only ever meant to be a work in progress std anyway. The aim was for a rat with the hood to be completely broken up into patches.
In 12/4/12, MD pointed out that hooded and saddled marking didn’t exist in any other mammal. (This is true and I remember mouse fanciers wondering about this. Of course we now know that it’s due to the insertion of a length of viral DNA about 20,000 years ago, but they had no way of knowing or even understanding that). She goes on to say ‘In rats the hood seems invariably to appear in the second cross of any self or agouti to white. The first cross produces selfs or agoutis with more or less white on the belly; but mate these youngsters back to the white parent and the result will be that some, at least, of the resulting offspring will be hooded. Why this should be I couldn’t say, and I don’t think the exponents of the science of hereditary have as yet done anything to throw light on the problem. But characteristic as this marking is, it is necessary if we are to evolve new markings such as dutch and broken marked, that the hood is broken up.’ MD then goes on to say that she has a hooded with a blaze.
In the same column a Mr Lyons writes; ‘ You could not say it was a broken without the hood was split up or broken up in one way or another. I have bred scores of patched rats, not spotted evens, but irregular patches about the body, but of course with the hood. (these were most likely varis) I have some now with a small hood and streak going from the back of the hood towards the nose, but not right through, and vice versa with patches unevenly placed on the body, but to produce the brokens I am starting on an altogether different method. Now that I have got them with a clean body and only a little hood and in one litter in the nest, they have white right up to the throat, hood not going under (ie a capped). When I get out of the hood then I think I can go on putting the patches on.’ Now we know that wouldn’t have been possible, but at the time they would not have known that.
At some point around the latter half of 1912, striped evens had their name changed to Japanese – a name they retained up until the early days of the NFRS, although you did see them called Japanese hooded. MD was said to have introduced this, but they had been called this by some people prior to the fancy, probably because at this time anything ‘exotic’ was inclined to be given a far eastern name. Spotted evens, or hooded with a spotted saddle, retained that name however. Spotted evens could also be evenly marked variegated, and there’s a photo in the 1920 3rd ed of such a rat.
The standard appeared to have been updated a bit and the wording was causing some discussion. MD in 10/1/13 says ‘Our std must be high and our aim perfection and not imperfection, we are all, I presume, agreed that the perfect Jap has a perfect saddle, but are the ‘imperfect ones’ ie those in which the saddle ends short of the tail; Japanese or even marks?’ (The definition of an even marked was, according to H.C. Brooke, a rat with the same markings on one side as the other, with a line drawn from nose tip to tail root.) MD continues ‘No one would wish to lower the std for Japanese, but we do want to decide, before the stds are printed, to which variety a specimen having a saddle which extends, say, half to three quarters of the way to the tail belongs. Unless it is clearly stated, the opinion of both breeders and judges on this point are bound to vary, and at shows catering separately for Jap and AOV we shall find ‘wrong class’ on the report instead of the coveted prize’. Mr Cottingham comments ‘that such rats are mismarked pure and simple’ quoting the example of a hooded with one quarter inch of saddle – it would he says be an even, but should not stand a chance against a decent spotted even.
In 9/5/13, a Mr Elias enquires ‘should the hood of a Jap or even marked rat run right under the lower jaw?’ MD replies ‘This point has not been raised of late, and is not provided for in the revised stds. I shall be glad to have the opinions of breeders, so that we can decide the point and include our discussion in the stds’.
Eventually the std decided upon was as follows: (From WM 3rd ed 1920)
‘Sides, legs and feet pure white, with hood and saddle of any distinct colour. The hood shall cover head, shoulders, throat and chin, without a break, or any white on the throat, and the saddle extend in a straight and unbroken line of moderate breadth from hood to tail. The edges of both hood and saddle should be clean cut and free from jagging and brindling and there shall be no spots. Ears to correspond in colour with the hood, eyes black or ruby. White fur to be pure in colour. Tail particoloured. The hood and saddle count 25 points.’
Mr Cottingham (above) considered that the Jap at the time of writing were not as good as they were a few years before, something that he put down to the craze for spotted evens and fawn and whites..(same as it ever was…)
Silvers, all silver greys (or as people will have it now, silver blacks) at this time, never really got off the ground. In the 2nd ed of WM’s book 1910, MD writes ‘This is another variety which is at present in embryo and should be capable of vast improvement. Many so called self blacks are spoilt, as selfs, by the presence of a number of white hairs scattered through the fur, sometimes so plentifully as practically to amount to ticking. Instead of regarding such specimens as spoilt selfs, it appears to me that they should be valued as the potential founders of a new and beautiful variety.’
Mr Robinson, in his article about the fawn rat above, also mentioned a silver grey owned by the same person (Mr Burrows) as owned the fawn rattus. ‘I will now describe the silver grey. In build she is the same as the fawn, and also in my opinion a descendant of Mus rattus. She is about three months old, a rich black, beautifully silvered with the exception of a small black patch on the middle of the back, which as she gets older, I feel assured, will silver. She has good chest and feet and a beautifully silvered head; she is a medium silver, racy build, and a good long tail.’
I’ve included the above out of interest, as it doesn’t really have any bearing on the variety as a whole.
In an article written by Mr Nunn on 2/5/11, he says that ‘From the black and white (cross) one may, eventually, obtain bad black, termed by some ‘silvers’. Whilst on the subject they are not silvers. Silvers show shades on the single hairs, but these bad blacks show distinct white hairs. They may, which I fully think they will, lead to silvers, but they are not silvers yet.’ However, by the 3rd ed of WM’s book, H.C Brooke writes ‘Silver greys are rarely seen and are a very underdeveloped variety’.
On 12/4/12, ‘Mus rattus’ talks about two kittens they have recently bred, one with half a tail and one tailless. While there was some discussion about the doe having a quick snack (which the writer denied) MD disagrees. ‘I believe the evolution of a strain of tailless rats would be within the range of things possible. Some years ago I had a doe entirely devoid of tail, but she did not transmit her deficiency to her offspring. Now this freak reappears! But, except as a curiosity is it desirable to perpetuate a Manx breed? I doubt it. There are people I know, who do not admire a rat’s tail, but to me a rat minus a tail suggests the idea of the historic performance of ‘Hamlet’ with the part of Hamlet omitted.’
I think that many people would agree with that.
MD was always keen to push this variety, despite the fact that it was never that popular. In 1907 she presented the NMC with a silver cup for Irish rats to try to bump up support. This was called ‘The Irish Cup’. On 9/5/13 she writes ’It seems a pity that more interest is not taken in this handsome variety, more especially as it is the only one that possesses a cup of its own. Moreover a good one is not easy to breed, and there is plenty of interest in evolving it. For the benefit of beginners let me give the Irish standards. ‘Head, body, ears, eyes and tail as in self blacks, fawns or agoutis. Distinctive markings are, a white equilateral triangle on chest and four white feet. The triangle should be clear cut, without brindling at the edges, and not extending in a streak down the belly. The white feet should resemble the stops on a dutch rabbit’ (not surprising that it got few takers, those foot patterns on an Irish as opposed to a bad Berkshire is something I’ve never seen).
She continues; ‘Here is something clear and distinct to breed to – and a good chance of capturing the cup to encourage one. To found a strain, mate an agouti, self black or a fawn, with a self white or a black and white. In the resulting litter there will probably be some, at least, black, fawn or agouti youngsters, with more or less white on the belly and white feet. There will probably be too much white, and in the wrong place. The problem is to keep the white feet and breed the belly white back to a triangle on the chest. This will be a matter of selection, mating the youngsters either with one another or back to the coloured parent. The second generation will probably show improvement in the matter of the white underneath, and successive matings on the same lines should produce a good strain. Care must be taken , however, not to reduce the white on the feet. Hitherto dark feet have been a common failing of otherwise good specimens , while those with good stops generally continue the triangle in a streak down the belly. I commend Irish to anyone anxious to build up a useful and handsome strain and hope that we shall have a few good specimens in competition at the next cup show.’ Mary herself bred several good Irish, and at the beginning of the NFRS there were a number of them too, all bred on similar lines to which she recommended.
I can only find one reference to dwarfs and normally I might not have included it, but due to the presence of dwarfs in the current fancy I thought it would be interesting. It seems to be thought that the breeder arrived at these by selectively breeding small rats, but I find that hard to believe, anyway, here it is, from MD’s column of 16/11/12. ‘Well done, Mr Duboisson - 4 rats 7 and a half inches from tip to tip spelt success and I regret that you have been obliged to give up your rats. I sincerely trust that all rat lovers will think over Mr Duboisson’s idea, and try the experiment which I firmly believe would meet with success. I feel strongly tempted to take up rats again and try the experiment myself, even though lack of accommodation compels me to keep them in my study. Perhaps Mr Duboisson would be so good as to give us a few hints on how to reduce the size in rats?’