137 



CHAPTER XII. 



SILVER OR CHINCHILLA PERSIANS. 



' JACK FROST." 



BREO nv MRS. Mix, OLO FORT 



BATTERY, NEW YORK. 

 (Photo: A. Lloyd, Amsterdam, N.Y.) 



PERHAPS no 

 breed or variety 

 of cat has been 

 so much thought 

 about, talked about, 

 and fought about in 

 the fancy as the sil- 

 ver or chinchilla 

 Persian. If blues 

 are a new variety, 

 then silvers are of 

 still more recent 

 origin. Years ago 

 this cat did not exist 

 that is to say, we 

 should not recognise the silver Persian of to- 

 day as the silver of bygone times, for the 

 simple reason that the only class of silver 

 in the fancy formerly was the silver tabby. 

 In those days there were self-coloured cats 

 and tabby, or marked cats, and broken- 

 coloured cats. Previous to the introduction 

 of a Chinchilla class at the Crystal Palace in 

 1894, the class for silver tabbies included blue 

 tabbies " with or without white," and it is 

 curious to read in the old catalogues of the 

 Crystal Palace shows the titles given to the 

 various cats by the owners, some describing 

 their cats as "chinchilla tabby," "light grey 

 tabby," "silver grey," "silver chinchilla," 

 " blue or silver striped." We may infer that 

 these cats were either blue tabbies or 

 silver tabbies, or something betwixt and 

 between. I distinctly remember the large 

 number of cats which in these enlightened days 

 we should find it difficult indeed to classify. 

 It is often said, " What's in a name ? " But 

 still, in trying to describe a particular breed 

 of cat, it is as well to endeavour to find 

 a term which expresses as nearly as pos- 

 sible both the colour and the appearance of 



the animal. There has been a great deal of 

 discussion as to the correct name by which 

 these delicately tinted Persians should be 

 called. 



The National Cat Club began by classify- 

 ing them for the Crystal Palace show in 1894 

 as Chinchillas, and they have kept to this, 

 although it is really a most misleading title, 

 as the cats are quite unlike the fur which 

 we know as chinchilla, this being dark at the 

 roots and lighter towards the tips. Now, cats 

 of this variety ought to be just the reverse. 



It is difficult to give a correct idea of the 

 real colour and appearance of these cats. The 

 fur at the roots is a peculiar light silver, not 

 white, as one might imagine, until some pure 

 white is placed beside it, and this shades to 

 a slightly darker tone a sort of bluish lavender 

 to the tips of the coat. The Cat Club intro- 

 duced the term " self silver," but this is 

 suggestive of one colour only, without any 

 shadings whatever. Another class, called 

 " shaded silvers," was added ; but then, again, 

 tabby markings are not shadings. Formerly, 

 blues used to be called " self blues," but this 

 is entirely done away with, and now we never 

 think of using this term, and speaking of them 

 as blues we understand there should be the 

 one and only colour. 



Surely, then, the simplest term and the 

 most descriptive of these beautiful cats is 

 " silver," pure and simple, for whether dark 

 or light they are all silvers, and so we should 

 have blues and blue tabbies, orange and orange 

 tabbies, silver and silver tabbies. 



Then comes the question of what is nearest 

 perfection in this variety of cat, which has 

 come upon us of late years, evolved from the 

 silver tabby and the blue. The ideal silver, to 

 use the words of a well-known breeder of these 

 cats, should be the palest conceivable edition 



