152 



THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



THH ELDER MISS BLOSSOM. 

 SILVER, OWNED BY Miss HORSMAN. 



handsome cat, but too often much marked on 

 the face and barred on the legs, a defect most 

 difficult to overcome. Many cat fanciers 

 describe the shaded silver as a ' spoilt tabby.' 

 " The third in the group of silvers is the 

 silver tabby. The points are here stated : 



" ' The colour of a silver tabby should be 

 a pale, clear silver, with distinct black mark- 

 ings.' 



" This variety ought in equity to have been 

 mentioned first, as it is the original stock, but 

 it has been overshadowed by the superior 

 attractions of the chinchilla. (Silver tabby 

 enthusiasts will perhaps pardon this eulogy of 

 my favourite breed.) There is not the slight- 

 est doubt this handsome cat, the silver tabby, 

 has suffered materially from the craze for the 

 newer variety, and consequently the type has 

 not been kept pure. They have been mated 

 over and over again with cats of less markings 

 in the hope of breeding chinchillas, until at 

 the present day there are very few silver 

 tabbies true to type. 



" The position of the silver tabby in the 

 feline scale is very peculiar. As a Persian it 

 is, of course, necessary that its coat should be 

 long and fine, whilst as a tabby it is desirable 



that the markings should show up to advan- 

 tage. How to reconcile the two is the puzzle, 

 for the longer the coat the less the markings 

 are evident, as the stripes are merged in the 

 flowing coat, so that we sometimes see at the 

 cat shows exhibits woefully out of coat placed 

 in the first rank, as the markings are much 

 more distinct. It follows, then, in this variety 

 of the silver, a long coat is distinctly a dis- 

 advantage when competing at shows. 



" Having now obtained three types for 

 silvers, and the Cat Club willing to give 

 classes for them at the great shows held in 

 St. Stephen's Hall, Westminster, the outcome 

 was looked forward to with much interest. 

 But it was one thing to get four types, and 

 quite another matter to get silver breeders 

 to understand the fine distinction ; conse- 

 quently, the cats were entered in self silver, 

 shaded silver, and silver tabby classes in- 

 discriminately. The result was, of course, 

 muddle and confusion, many exhibitors having 

 the mortification of finding ' Wrong Class ' 

 on the cat pens. 



" At a recent show held at Westminster 

 under the auspices of the Cat Club, the judge 

 was asked by the Honorary Secretary to go 

 round the classes first, and if any exhibit was 

 wrongly placed to re-classify before judging. 

 This worked satisfactorily so far as disqualifi- 

 cation was concerned. 



" At this show, however, the judge was con- 

 fronted with another difficulty, it being found 

 that most of the cats in the classes for shaded 

 silver had deviated materially from the stand- 

 ard of points laid down by the Silver Society. 

 Instead of the clear, pale undercoat, the fur 

 was a dark grey right down to the skin. The 

 majority of these cats were quite dark, and, 

 rightly speaking, were not silvers that is, if 

 one bears in mind the metal so named. It is 

 difficult to say in what class they could be 

 placed, unless a new class was created, to be 

 called ' clouded or oxydised silver.' If we go 

 on to these subdivisions we shall not know 

 where to stop. Self silver or chinchilla, 

 shaded silver, clouded silver, and silver tabby 

 a truly appalling problem for the bewildered 



