The Living Animals of the World 



[THi/iaic, X.J3. 



MANX. 



These tailless cats are well known ; they were formerly called " Corn- 

 wall cats." Note the length of the hind legs, which is one of the 

 characteristics of this variety of the domestic cat. 



SIAMESE. 



These strikingly coloured cats are now fairly numerous in England, 

 but command high prices. They have white kittens, which subse. 

 quently become coloured. 



of the ancients, and it is not astonishing to hear of attempts being made to steal the 

 wonderful cats of Persia, China, and Northern India, as well as those of the many dependent 

 and independent tribes which bound the Russian kingdom. But it is a remarkable fact that 

 none but the blues can live in the attentuated atmosphere of the higher mountainous 

 districts through which they are taken before arriving in Russian territory. It is no 

 uncommon thing to find a wonderful complexity of blue cats shading to silver and white 

 in most Russian villages, or blue cats of remarkable beauty, but with a dash of tabby- 

 marking running through their coats. Their life, too, is lived at the two extremes. In 

 the short Russian summer they roam the woodlands, pestered by a hundred poisonous insects; 

 in the winter they are imprisoned within the four walls of a snow-covered cottage, and are 

 bound down prisoners to domesticity till the thaw sets in again. Many of the beautiful furs 

 which come to us from Russia are really the skins of these cats, the preparation of which for 

 market has grown into a large and thriving industry. The country about Kronstadt, in the 

 Southern Carpathian Mountains of Austria, is famous for its finely developed animals; and 

 here, too, has grown up a colony of sable-coloured cats, said to be of Turkish origin, where the 

 pariahs take the place of cats. 



The TABBY is remarkable to us in that it is characteristic of our own country, and 

 no other colour seems to have been popular until our own times. If you ask any one 

 which breed of cat is the real domestic cat, you will be told the tabby, probably because 

 it is so well known to all. The complexity of the tabby is really remarkable, and 



BLUE LONG-HAIRED, OR PERSIAN. 

 This cat belonged to Queen Victoria. 



SILVER PERSIANS. 



Three of Mrs. Champion's celebrated cats. 



