The Cat Tribe 



73 



Photo by E. Landor] 



LOXG-HAIRED CHINCHILLA. 

 Note the beautiful " fluffiness " of this cat's fur. 



[Baling. 



for shape and variety of colouring it has no 

 equal in any other tribe of cat. It has 

 comprised in its nature all the really great 

 qualities of the feline, and all its worst attri- 

 butes. You can truthfully say of one of its 

 specimens that it attaches itself to the indi- 

 vidual, while of another in the same litter you 

 will get an element of wildness. A third of the 

 same parents will sober down to the house, 

 but take only a passing notice of people. You 

 can teach it anything if it is tractable, make 

 it follow like a dog, come to whistle, but it will 

 have its independence. 



The SAND-COLOURED CAT, with a whole- 

 coloured coat like the rabbit, which we know 

 as the ABYSSINIAN or BUNNY CAT, is a strong 

 African type. On the Gold Coast it comes 



down from the inland country with its ears all bitten and torn away in its fights with rivals. 



It has been acclimatised in England, and Devonshire and Cornwall have both established a 



new and distinct tribe out of its parentage. The MANX CAT is nearly allied to it, and 



a hundred years ago the tailless cat was called the Cornwall Cat, not the Manx. 



Siam sends us a regal animal in the SIAMESE EOYAL CAT ; it has a brown face, legs, and 



tail, a cream-coloured body, and mauve or blue eyes. The Siamese take great care of their 



cats, for it is believed that the souls of the departed are transmitted into the bodies of animals, 



and the cat is a favourite of their creed; consequently the cats are highly cultivated and 



intelligent, and can think out ways and means to attain an end. 



I have tried for years to trace the origin of the LONG-HAIRED or PERSIAN CATS, but I cannot 



find that they were known to antiquity, and even the records of later times only mention the 



SHORT-HAIRED. European literature does not give us an insight into the subject ; and unless 



Chinese history holds some hidden 



lights in its records, we are thrown 



back upon the myths of Persia to 



account for the wonderful modern 



distribution of the long-haired cat, 



which is gradually breeding out 



into as many varieties as the short- 

 haired, with this difference that 



greater care and trouble are taken 



over the long-haired, and they will, 



as a breed, probably soon surpass 



the short-haired for '"ntelligence and 



culture. 



One variety is quite new and 



distinctive the SMOKE LONG- 

 HAIRED, whose dark brown or black 



surface-coat, blown aside, shows 



an under-coat of blue and silver, 



with a light brown frill round its 



neck. All the other long-haired cats 



AT. it. -U A -u J f Photo by H. Trevor Jessop. 



can pair with the short-haired for THE .^^ QR (ITICKED> , SHOET . HAIRED CAT . 



Colouring and marking, but I have This . g one of the rarest ^ in Ensland . It belongs to Miss K. Maud Bennett who has 



not yet seen a BUNNY LOMJ-II AIRED. kindly had it photographed for this work. 



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