TABBY CATS. 



49 



white, and that is evenly, proportionably, and not too 

 broadly but elegantly marked on the face, head, breast, 

 sides, back, belly, legs, and tail with bands of solid, deep, 

 shining black. The front part of the head or face and legs, 

 breast, and belly should have a more rich red orange tint 

 than the back, but which should be nearly if not equal in 

 depth of colour, though somewhat browner ; the markings 

 should be graceful in curve, sharply, well, and clearly 

 defined, with fine deep black edges, so that the brown and 

 black are clear and distinct the one from the other, not 

 blurred in any way. The banded tabby should not be 

 spotted in any way, excepting those few that nearly always 

 occur on the face and sometimes on the fore-legs. The 

 clearer, redder, and brighter the brown the better. The 

 nose should be deep red, bordered with black ; the eyes an 

 orange colour, slightly diffused with green; in form the 

 head should not be large, nor too wide, being rather longer 

 than broad, so as not to give too round or clumsy an 

 appearance ; ears not large nor small, but of moderate size, 

 and of good form; legs medium length, rather long than 

 short, so as not to lose grace of action ; body long, narrow, 

 and deep towards the fore part. Tail long, and gradually 

 tapering towards the point; feet round, with black claws, 

 and black pads ; yellowish-white around the black lips and 

 brown whiskers are allowable, but orange-tinted are far 

 preferable, and pure white should disqualify. A cat of 

 this description , is now somewhat rare. What are generally 

 shown as brown tabbies are not sufficiently orange-brown^ 

 but mostly of a dark, brownish-gray. This is simply the 

 ordinary tabby, and not the brown tabby proper. 



As I stated in my notes on the Tortoiseshell cat, the 

 best parents to obtain a good brown tabby from is to have a 

 strongly marked, not too broad-banded tabby he-cat and a 

 tortoiseshell she-cat with little black, or red tabby she-cat, 

 the produce being, when tabby, generally of a rich brown, 

 or sometimes what is termed black tabby, and also red 

 tabby. The picture illustrating these notes is from one so 

 bred, and is a particularly handsome specimen. There 



