j 2 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



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fhoto by E. Lander} 



\_Ealing 



SIAMESE 



F«.n by C. ReiJ] [Wiihaw, N. B. 



MANX 



These tailless cats are ivell knoivn ; they ivere formerly called These strikingly coloured cats are noiu fairly numerous, but com- 



" Cornwall cats." Note the length of the hind legs, ivhich is one mand high prices. They have *white kittens, ivhich subsequently 



of the characteristics of this variety of the domestic cat 



become coloured 



to steal the wonderful cats of Persia, China, and Northern India, as well as those of the 

 many dependent and independent tribes which bound the Russian kingdom. But it is a 

 remarkable fact that none but the blues can live in the attenuated atmosphere of the higher 

 mountainous districts through which they are taken before arriving in Russian territory. It is 

 no uncommon thing to find a wonderful complexity of blue cats shading to silver and white in 

 most Russian villages, or blue cats of remarkable beauty, but with a dash of tabby-marking 

 running through their coats. Their life, too, is lived at the two extremes. In the short Russian 

 summer they roam the woodlands, pestered by a hundred poisonous injects ; in the winter they 

 are imprisoned within the four walls of a snow-covered cottage, and are bound down prisoners to 

 domesticity till the thaw sets in again. Many of the beautiful furs which come to us from Russia 

 are really the skins of these cats, the preparation of which for market has grown into a large 

 and thriving industry. The country about Kronstadt, in the Southern Carpathian Mountains 

 of Austria, is famous for its finely developed animals ; and here, too, has grown up a colony of 

 sable-coloured cats, said to be of Turkish origin, where the pariahs take the place of cats. 



The Tabby is remarkable to us in that it is characteristic of our own country, and no other 

 colour seems to have been popular until our own times. If you ask any one which breed of 

 cat is the real domestic cat, you will be told the tabby, probably because it is so well known to 

 all. The complexity of the tabby is really remarkable, and for shape and variety of colouring 

 it has no equal in any other tribe of cat. It has comprised in its nature all the really great 

 qualities of the feline, and all its worst attributes. You can truthfully say of one of its 



BLUE LONG-HAIRED, OR PERSIAN 



This cat belonged to £$ueen Victoria 



SILVER PERSIANS 

 Three of Mrs. Champion s celebrated cats 



