THE ANGORA CAT. (Felis Angorensis, Linn.) 



This beautiful variety is most abundant at Angora, in Asia 

 Minor. It is considerably larger than most of our common 

 cats, and is plentifully clothed with remarkably long and silky 

 hair of a silvery hue, growing most profusely about the neck, 

 where it forms a kind of ruff, and on the tail, which, when 

 elevated above the body, resembles a beautiful plume. The 

 nose and the edges of the lips are of a fine rose colour ; the 

 eyes large and brilliant, and generally blue or yellow. When 

 Sonnini was in Egypt, he had an Angora cat with one eye of 

 a fine blue and the other of a light yellow.* 



With the physiognomy of goodness, Sonnini 's specimen 

 possessed a most amiable disposition. How ill soever any 

 one used her, she never attempted to protrude her claws ; 

 sensible also to kindness, she licked the hand that caressed 

 her. On a journey, she reposed tranquilly on the knees of 

 any of the company, for there was no occasion to confine her ; 

 and if her master or some other person whom she knew were 

 present, no noise whatever gave her the least alarm. In Sonnini's 

 solitary movements, she chiefly kept by his side; she interrupted 

 him frequently in the midst of his labours or meditations, by 



* In the shop of Mr. Handforth, Borough Road, Southwark, I saw in 1835 

 a white cat whose left eye was of a light green colour, while her right was of 

 a beautiful bright blue. It would seem that sometimes, if not always, this 

 disparity arises from disease or injury. Dr. Smith mentions a soldier, whose 

 eyes he found to differ in colour, one iris being grey, the other light green ; 

 and the man ascribed the circumstance to a severe blow inflicted by a rope's 

 end, several months previously, on the light green eye which was originally 

 grey like the other. 



