WHITE PERSIANS. 



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eyed whites, although it has been asserted 

 that they exist. This peculiarity, however, 

 of odd eyes seems only to be found in white 

 cats, the two colours being blue and yellow. 

 Occasionally white cats have wonderful sea- 

 green eyes ; and, although these are decidedly 

 very uncommon, no colour is so com- 

 pletely in accord with the purity of the coat 

 as eyes of heavenly blue. The tone should 

 be not so much of a sapphire as of the deep 

 forget-me-not blue. One of the drawbacks 

 to white Persians is the difficulty of keeping 

 them in spotlessly clean condition. This is 

 absolutely impossible if they are living in or 

 near a town, and certainly a white cat soiled 

 is a white cat spoiled. 



As regards the mating of blue-eyed white 

 cats, I have been told by experienced breeders 

 of this variety that kittens with blue eyes are 

 just as frequently bred from odd-eyed parents, 

 or, at least, when one of the parents has dif- 

 ferent-coloured eyes. It is easy to tell whether 

 the baby blue eyes are likely to retain their 

 colour or turn yellow. If at about three 

 weeks or a month old the blue becomes tinted 

 with green, then surely but sadly may we 

 make up our minds that these kittens have 

 not a distinguished career before them, 

 for they will see and be seen with yellow eyes. 

 It is a pity to try mating white cats with 

 any other variety, as broken - coloured cats 

 will probably be the result. It frequently 

 happens that white kittens, when quite young, 

 have smudges of grey on their heads ; these 

 gradually disappear. In America white cats 

 seem prime favourites, and the demand ex- 

 ceeds the supply for importation of white 

 Persians with blue eyes. At the last Beres- 

 -ford Cat Club Show the entries in the white 

 classes were very large. The classification 

 included and provided for golden- and blue- 

 eyed whites, and these were subdivided ac- 

 cording to sex, and all the classes were well 

 filled. Mrs. Clinton Locke's "Lord Gwynne" 

 is a noted white stud cat on the other side of 

 the water, as is also Mrs. Colbourn's '' Paris." 



The devotees of the white cat in our own 

 country are not many in number. I may 



mention Mrs. Finnic Young and Miss Hunt, 

 who are perhaps the most successful breeders 

 of whites in Scotland ; and in the south we 

 have Mrs. Pettit, whose tribe of blue-eyed 

 whites I had recently the pleasure of seeing. 

 No' more lovely specimens could be imagined, 

 and I counted more than a dozen long-coated, 

 full-grown, bonnie blue-eyed beauties, walking 

 about in the woods surrounding Mrs. Pettit's 

 dwelling-place near St. Leonards - on - Sea. 

 The illustration shows Mrs. Pettit surrounded 

 by eight of her pretty white pussies. Mrs. 

 Westlake, Mrs, Xott, Miss White Atkins, and 

 Miss Kerswill are all successful and enthusi- 

 astic breeders of white Persians. 



Several well-known fanciers keep one white 

 cat amongst their flock. I may mention the 

 Hon. Mrs. McLaren Morrison, the owner of 

 " Musafer," a famous imported puss, and Lady 

 Decies, the former possessor of " Powder Puff," 

 who has recently been presented to H.H. Prin- 

 cess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. There is 

 always a keen demand for white kittens, 

 either as pretty pets or, if with correct-coloured 

 eyes, for breeding purposes, and, doubtless, 

 when more encouragement is given to this 

 beautiful variety, there will be an increase of 

 fanciers of the white cat, whose praises have 

 been sung in fairy tales, nursery rhymes, 



MRS. MCLAREN'S WHITE PERSIAN " LADVSMITH." 



(.Photo: C. Reid Wishaw.) 



