SPOTTED TABBIES, 55 



Tabby, one of my reasons being that I have, when judging 

 at cat shows, often found excellent specimens of both 

 entered in the "wrong class," thereby losing all chance 

 of a prize, though, if rightly entered, either might very 

 possibly have taken honours. I therefore wish to direct 

 particular attention to the spotted character of the markings 

 of the variety called the " spotted tabby." It will be 

 observed that there are no lines, but what are lines in 

 other tabbies are broken up into a number of spots, and 

 the more these spots prevail, to the exclusion of liiies or 

 bands, the better the specimen is considered to be. The 

 varieties of the ground colour or tint on which these mark- 

 ings or spots are placed constitutes the name, such as 

 black-spotted tabby, brown-spotted tabby, and so on, the 

 red-spotted tabby or yellows-spotted tabby in i-Zz^-cats being 

 by far the most scarce. These should be marked with spots 

 instead of bands, on the same ground colour as the red or 

 yellow-banded tabby cat. In the former the ground colour 

 should be a rich red, with spots of a deep, almost choco- 

 late colour, while that of the yellow tabby may be a deep 

 yellow cream, with yellowish-brown spots. Both are very 

 scarce, and are extremely pretty. Any admixture of white 

 is not allowable in the class for yellow or red tabbies; 

 such exhibit must be put into the class (should there be 

 one, which is usually the case at large shows) for red or 

 yellow and white tabbies. This exhibitors will do well to 

 make a note of. 



Some few years ago a hybrid, between the domestic cat 

 and the English wild cat, was exhibited at the Crystal 

 Palace Show. It took first prize in the Spotted Tabby Class, 

 and was very beautiful. There is a rich-coloured brown 

 tabby hybrid to be seen at the Zoological Society Gardens 

 in Regent's Park, between the wild cat of Bengal and a 

 tabby she-cat. It is handsome, but very wild. These hybrids, 

 I am told, will breed again with tame variety, or with others. 



In the brown-spotted tabby, the dark gray-spotted tabby, 

 the black-spotted tabby, the gray or the blue-spotted tabby, 

 the eyes are best yellow or orange tinted, with the less of the 



