104 MATING. 



should be avoided; because, as I explained at the commence- 

 ment of these notes on blues, the blue is black and white 

 amalgamated^ or the brown withdrawn from the colouring, 

 or, if not, with the colours breaking, or becoming black 

 and white. If whole coloured blues are in request, then 

 parti-colours, such as white and black, or black and white, 

 are best excluded. Blue and white are easily attainable 

 by mating a blue male with a white and black female. 



The best and deepest coloured of the blue short-haired 

 cats are from Archangel. Those I have seen were very fine 

 in colour, the pelage being the same colour to the skin, which 

 was also dark and of a uniform lilac-tinted blue. Some 

 came by chance, I knew, of a blue English cat, winner of 

 several prizes, whose parents were a black and white male 

 mated with a " light-gray tabby " and white ; but this was an 

 exception to the rule, for strongly-marked tabbies are not a 

 good cross. 



BROWN TABBY. 



For the purpose of breeding rich brown black -striped 

 tabbies, a male of a rich dark rufous or red tabby should be 

 selected, the bands being regular and not too broad, the 

 lighter or ground colour showing well between the lines ; if 

 the black lines are very broad, it is then a black, striped 

 with brown, instead of a brown with black, which is wrong. 

 With this match a female of a good brown ground colour, 

 marked with dense, not broad, black bands, having clear, 

 sharply defined edges. Note also that the centre line of 

 the back is a distinct line, with the brown ground 

 colour on which it is placed being in no way interspersed 

 with black, and at least as broad as the black line ; by this 

 cross finely-marked kittens of a brilliant colour may be 

 expected. But if the progeny are not so bright as required, 

 and the ground colour not glowing enough, then, when the 

 young arrive at maturity, mate with a dark-yellow red tabby, 

 either male or female. 



