THE ABYSSINIAN, 59 



the underwood. It proved not to be wild, but belonged to 

 one of the villagers, and was bred in the village. When 

 the ground colour is light gray or blue, it is generally 

 called chinchilla, to the fur of which animal the coat has 

 a general resemblance. I have but little inclination to place 

 it as a distinct, though often it is of foreign breed ; such 

 may be, though ours is merely a variety — and a very in- 

 teresting one — of the ordinary tabby, with which its form, 

 habits, temper, etc., seem fully to correspond ; still several 

 have been imported from Abyssinia all of which were pre- 

 cisely similar, and it is stated that this is the origin of 

 the Egyptian cat that was worshipped so many centuries 

 ago. The mummies of the cats I have seen in no case 

 had any hair left, so that it was impossible to determine 

 what colour they were. The imported cats are of stouter 

 build than the EngHsh and less marked. These bred with 

 an EngHsh tabby often give a result of a nearly black, the 

 back band extending very much down the sides, and the 

 brown ticks almost disappearing, which gives a very rich 

 and beautiful colouring. 



I find there is yet another tint or colour of the tabby 

 proper which I have not mentioned, that is to say, a cat 

 marked with light wavy lines, and an exceedingly pretty one 

 it is. It is very rare ; in fact, so much so that it has never 

 had a class appropriated to it, and therefore is only 

 admissible to or likely to win in the class " For Any Other 

 Colour," in which class usually a number of very beautiful 

 varieties are to be found, some of which I shall have 

 occasion to notice further on. The colour, however, that 

 I now refer to is often called the silver tabby, for want of a 

 better name. It is this. The whole of the ground colour 

 is of a most delicate silver-gray, clear and firm in tone, 

 slightly blue if anything apart from the gray, and the markings 

 thereon are but a little darker, with a tinge of lilac in them 

 making the fur to look like an evening sky, rayed with light 

 clouds. The eyes are orange-yellow, and when large and 

 full make a fine contrast to the colour of the fur. The nose 

 is red, edged with a lilac tint, and the pads of the feet and 



