1 62 Lloyd's natural history. 



The Carthusian or " Blue " Cat is a very beautiful long 

 and soft-haired breed with fur of a dark greyish-blue colour, 

 the lips and the soles of the feet retaining, however, the normal 

 black hue. 



Mention having been already made of the ordinary Domestic 

 Cats of India, we pass on to what is known as the Siamese Cat, 

 characterised by its uniformly fawn-coloured fur, which becomes 

 darker on the muzzle, its blue eyes, and the occasional presence 

 of two bare spots on the forehead. 



More esteemed than all is the beautiful Angora or Persian 

 Cat. Characterised by their large size, the length and softness 

 of the fur — especially that of the under-parts, — and the bushy 

 tail, these Cats are generally either uniform white, yellowish, 

 or greyish in colour, with the lips and soles of the feet fre- 

 quently flesh-coloured. It has been suggested that this breed 

 is descended from the wild Pallas's Cat of Central Asia. 



In Gray's "Catalogue of Carnivorous Animals in the 

 British Museum," it is stated that in some Chinese Cats the 

 ears are pendulous, but subsequent observers have been led to 

 doubt the truth of this statement. 



The Malay Cat, from Siam and Burma, is characterised by 

 the tail being only half the usual length ; while in some speci- 

 mens, owing to a deformity in the bones, it is twisted up into 

 a kind of knot, from which it cannot be uncurled. 



More remarkable than all are the Tail-less Cats of the Isle 

 of Man, a breed with the same peculiarity being recorded 

 from the Crimea. Bell states that Tail-less Cats were likewise 

 common in his time in Cornwall; while a small village in Dor- 

 setshire also possessed a breed lacking the same appendage. 

 In the latter case it was stated that the race was known to be 

 descended from a Cat accidentally deprived of its tail ; and as 

 another instance is on record of a Cat, whose tail had been 

 amputated, giving birth to stump-tailed kittens, it is not im- 



