THE CAT 



85 



The cat called the " Carthusian 

 friar" is blue, with very long fine 

 hair. In Holland there is a breed of 

 very handsome short-haired blue cats 

 which would find a great market if 

 some intelligent person would under- 

 take to breed them. It was our inten- 

 tion to reproduce a group of them 

 here, but photography was powerless 

 to give an idea of the beautiful color 

 of the living animal. 



Blue-gray cats, whose color is far 

 from being as beautiful as that of the 

 foregoing species, often have w'hite 

 patches on the breast, the paws, and 



sometimes the head. The soot-colored, 



1,^ i^u " „* , ,t;„, ,,. „^u 1,1 tu,. A Celebrated Tahuv. A Prize Winner 



or "tabby, cat, sometimes calletl tne 



,, . r ,1 From paiiitinij bv E. Landoi 



gray cat, is the one most trecjuently 



seen in our houses and gardens. Transversal greatly improve. The striped and very tall 



black stripes, sometimes black with brown Cyprus cat is universally renowned. Its stripes 



edges, encircle the legs, tail, and neck, and go are gray or black on a yellow ground, but they 



down the sides of the animal. Often these lines must be perfectly distinct. Many cats are sold 



go from the eyes to the forehead, forming sin- under the name of " Cyprus cats," in whose 



gular figures, in which (by an effort of imag- 

 ination) the owner sometimes deciphers a 

 monogram. Most of these cats, of less pure 

 descent, have white patches on their heads, 

 which exclude them from exhibitions. Are gray 

 cats better mousers than all others ? They are 

 said to be ; but if the fact 

 be true, it cannot result 

 from the color, because, 

 as we very well know, 

 "by night all cats are 

 gray." 



Other gray cats that 

 are almost black have 

 white paws and a white 

 line between the eyes. 

 The blacker the cat and 

 the whiter the line the 

 more the animal is 

 valued. The contrary, 

 namely a wholly white 

 body with black head 

 and tail, characterizes 

 the Moorish cats, a race 

 which breeding would 



White Persian of Great Beauty 



From painting by E. Lando 



veins there is not a drop of Cypriot blood and 

 whose ancestors never saw the island of Cyprus. 

 Among the long-haired cats we meet the 

 imposing Angora, white in color, with a mag- 

 nificent plumed tail. There are cats of this race 

 of several other colors, but breeders are en- 

 deavoring to keep them 

 ]Hire white ; and as this 

 color propagates itself 

 with some constancy, 

 they are succeeding. 

 The Angora being espe- 

 cially a parlor cat, very 

 sensitive to cold and 

 dampness, and conse- 

 quently delicate in con- 

 stitution, their owners 

 should avoid giving them 

 dainties, such as tripe, 

 giblets, or scraps of fish, 

 since their digestion is 

 upset much sooner than 

 that of other cats. 



The Persian cat has 

 silky hair, very long and 



