*This is an interim catalogue description. Only the first five notebooks have been catalogued as part of the Bateson Digitisation Project on CUDL.

A series of notebooks recording William Bateson and Reginald Punnett’s experiments in rabbit breeding.

In contrast to the experiments on sweet peas or chickens, which were to a great degree seasonal, with hatching and sowing occurring mainly in the spring, rabbit breeding went on all the year round. Although many progeny were killed shortly after birth, some were kept for longer, in some cases up to 18 months to 2 years. Some entries in the books therefore span two to three years. There is no record of where the rabbit breeding was done, or where the rabbits were kept, but there were obviously considerable numbers, up to 300 in 1924-1925.

The first series of notebooks (which begins with a book labelled ‘Rabbits’ and continues with books labelled alphabetically) runs from December 1907 to December 1925. A second series then begins again with letters A-S running through to 1941, ending with an unlabelled book which has records up to 1950. Since Punnett retired in 1943, this particular book may record experiments carried out by his successor, R.A. Fisher. Some books are missing from each letter series, and it is not clear whether these books are actually missing or whether the letters were not used in the series. There are no major chronological gaps in the dates which would correspond to missing books.

The inside front cover of each notebook usually contains an index list of rabbits. The general format of the record is that each animal has a separate page. The page is headed with the cross, e.g. ex Y81 x YB4, which denotes the parents. The birth date is recorded, together with phenotypic characteristics such as coat colour etc., followed in some cases by a dated series of measurements. What these measurements are is not recorded, but they are probably weights, since the later ones tend to go up and down. Many animals are recorded as being killed shortly after birth.