428 



CARNIVORES 



now well known, white cats with blue eyes are usually deaf, this deafness being 

 probably attributable to the lack of dark pigment characterising the e\-es also 

 extending to the ears; such dark pigment being, in some mysterious manner, 

 connected with the sense of hearing. 



The pure -bred tortoiseshell cat — a race which, by the way, .seems now 

 much more rare in England than formerlj^ — should be of an orange-fawn colour, 

 irregularly blotched with black, without any admixture of white. Such cats are 

 almost invariably females, altliough, according to Professor Mivart, there is at least 

 one good instance of a pure " tortoiseshell torn." The male of this breed is the 

 sandy cat, and the writer above mentioned comments upon the extreme ]jeculiai-ity 

 in this difference of the coloration in the two sexes of this breed, the males and 



THE A>-GORA CAT (f nat. size). 



females of all wild cats, with the single exception of the South American jaguarondi 

 (in which the female is the brighter of the two), being coloured alike. Occasionally, 

 however, female sandy cats are to be met with, while sandy-and-wliite and tortoise- 

 shell-and-white cats may be of either sex. The so-called " blue " or Caithu.sian cat 

 is characterised by its long and silky hair being of a uniform greyish-blue colour, 

 while the soles of the feet and the lips are black. 



Turning to Asiatic cats, it has already been mentioned that many of those of 

 India have more or less distinctly .spotted coats like their wild compatriots, such 

 coloration being almost unknown in Europe. The most celebrated of all the Asiatic 

 breeds is the Persian, or Angora cat, its second title being derived from a town in 

 Asia Minor. These eats are characterised by their large size, their long silky hair, 

 — most developed on the throat and under-parts. — and the thick bushy tail. The 

 colour is generally uniform, varying from piu-e white to a yellowish or greyish 



