BREEDS AND VARIETIES 21 



enthusiastic Orange fanciers may succeed in breeding such a 

 cat, and also produce blue eyes ! At present the classifica- 

 tion generally stands for Orange cats, marked or unmarked. 

 The colour of the eyes should be a bronze gold, or hazel 

 brown. Orange females are much rarer than Orange males. 



Cream Persians are very much to the fore now, but the 

 name is suggestive of a cat much paler in colour than those 

 seen in the Show pens. These cats should be as self- 

 coloured as possible, without tabby markings or shadings. 

 They are often rather patchy in colour, and lean towards 

 fawn rather than cream. Their eyes should be the same 

 golden or hazel colour as in the Orange breed. 



It is seldom a really good specimen of a Tortoiseshell 

 is seen. These tricolour cats of black, orange and yellow 

 should be patched, just like the marks in a piece of tortoise- 

 shell. There should be no streaks, stripes or tabby mark- 

 ings in a good Tortoiseshell cat, and the colours should be 

 well broken and evenly distributed over the body, head and 

 legs. The brighter colours should predominate, and no 

 white is permissible. 



To novices only in the Fancy need I remark, that Tortoise- 

 shell Tom cats are extremely rare. Tortoiseshell and white 

 long-haired cats are by no means common. Most of those 

 exhibited have too much white about them, and might justly 

 be called White and Tortoiseshell. To be correct, the black, 

 orange and white should be evenly balanced, and the chest 

 and nose should always be white, with patches of colour on 

 either side of the face. 



And now to consider the Short-haired breeds. My re- 

 marks as to the Black, White and Tabby long-haired cats 

 equally apply to the short-haired varieties. The Blacks 

 must have no white, and the Whites be pure in colouring. 

 The eyes of the former should be orange, and of the latter 

 blue. It will be easily understood that the markings in the 

 Tabby short-haired cats are much more vivid and distinct 

 than in the long-haired breeds. There are also * Spotted 

 Tabbies, but they are rare. In these there should be no 

 lines whatever not even rings. The more the spots appear 



* Strictly, of course, this is a contradiction in terms, for " Tabby " 

 means "Striped." Still the name "Spotted Tabby" has become 

 established and is intelligible. 



