152 



THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



coming the property of the winner. After 

 some keen competition, covering about half a 

 dozen shows, Mrs. Martin won it outright in 

 1899, when it was replaced by the present 

 exactly similar model. 



" The endeavour of the Chinchilla Cat Club, 

 of which all the leading breeders and most 

 successful exhibitors are members, is to 

 continue the work that has been done to 

 improve chinchillas, and to produce a new 

 variety the colour of the palest shade of the 

 fur (dyed) known as ' blue fox,' or a very light 

 shade of pigeon blue. Without doubt such a 

 result can be obtained by careful selection and 

 ' the little more.' Darwin's words on the 

 subject of selection are attractive to all 

 owners of live stock. He says : ' Improvement 

 is by no means due to crossing different breeds. 

 All the best breeders are strongly opposed 

 to this practice, except sometimes amongst 

 closely allied sub-breeds. And when a cross 

 has been made, the closest selection is far 

 more indispensable even than in ordinary 

 cases. If selection consisted merely in 

 separating some very distinct variety and 

 breeding from it, the principle would be so 

 obvious as to be hardly worth notice ; but 

 the importance consists ' in the great effect 

 produced by the accumulation in one direction 

 during successive generations .of differences 

 absolutely unappreciable by an uneducated 

 eye. Not one man in a thousand has the 

 accuracy of eye and judgment sufficient to 

 become an eminent breeder. . . . Few would 

 readily believe in the natural capacity and 

 years of practice requisite to become even a 

 skilful pigeon fancier.' 



" The Chinchilla Cat Club is also prepared 

 to encourage cats of new colours, which should 

 now be not so very difficult to produce, con- 

 sidering the points that have been brought out 

 in those varieties that were well known, the 

 latter showing that it is possible to breed to a 

 standard if judgment is used in the endeavour 

 to do so. Some of us remember the time 

 when a blue cat, either long- pr short-haired 

 (now the largest classes), was a rara avis when 

 Mrs. Lee's ' Meo ' was the only Siamese at 



the Crystal Palace show, smokes an equal 

 oddity, blue eyes in a white cat a comparatively 

 unnoticed point, and cream - coloured cats 

 entirely unknown. 



" The colour of the chinchilla has been bred 

 in various ways. In bygone days, when 

 chinchilla cats were flukes or freaks and few 

 and far between, methods which would now 

 be considered somewhat eccentric were re- 

 sorted to by the first breeders of the colour. 

 The useful tortoiseshell, from which black, 

 red, cream, or tabby cats can be got, was 

 pressed into the service, and, paired with a silver 

 or light blue tabby not too clearly marked, 

 would occasionally, amid the multi-coloured 

 kittens for which tortoiseshells are proverbial, 

 throw a medium chinchilla or light silver tabby, 

 which with careful selection might, a generation 

 or two later, develop into something approach- 

 ing a good chinchi la. 



" But it is, perhaps, more difficult to foretell 

 with cats than any other animal what the 

 result of pairing will be with anything like 

 certainty. This particularly applies to the 

 ordinary English cat, as it is impossible to guess 

 at the mixture of different-coloured creatures 

 which have preceded it, and any of which 

 may influence the progeny of its descendants. 

 A fancier who would produce any particular 

 specimen must, amongst other gifts, be 

 equipped with the patience of biblical cele- 

 brities and prepared to wait seven years, as 

 one enthusiast actually did before arriving at 

 the fulfilment of his desires in the shape of a 

 well-marked tabby kitten. 



" With pedigree cats, of course, the chances, 

 of unexpected traits reappearing in their pro- 

 geny are considerably lessened, and, given 

 desirable connections on both sides of some 

 years' standing, the personal attributes of a 

 coming litter may be predicted more or less 

 successfully. One of the loveliest of smokes 

 the correct black, with white undercoat, with- 

 out the shadow of a stripe was from a brown 

 tabby queen, from brown tabby parents, and 

 a chinchilla bred from a chinchilla dam and 

 smoke sire. Again, a brown tabby with 

 white paws, whose appearance did not suggest 



