SMOKE PERSIANS. 



185 



to pass through an ' ugly ' period luckily a 

 short one when they change their coats, 

 looking ragged and certainly not their best. 

 Smokes and blacks then show the brown tinge 

 even worse than chinchillas, as it gives them 

 the poverty - stricken appearance of rusty 

 moulting though I must say ' Teufel ' has 

 so far been the exception, taking all honours 

 at one show when in full moult. 



" However, their good time fully corn- 



standard up to which I try to breed. I find 

 the kittens go through several stages before 

 they approach this perfection. For instance, 

 a kitten I had in the spring of 1902 lightened 

 considerably, and developed markings on the 

 face, but at eight months old he was nearly 

 up to the standard. A litter of six I have 

 recently bred were entirely unmarked at 

 birth, being, in fact, quite black. Five are 

 now medium-coloured smokes, and one a very 



MRS. SIXKINS' SMOKE PERSIAN '' TEUFEL." 



pensates for the shabby period, and a typical 

 smoke, with his large orange eyes set in his 

 black face, with light ear tufts and frill, his 

 white under-coat showing with every move- 

 ment, is a thing of beauty hard to beat, and 

 I feel sure the smoke variety has a great 

 future before it." 



Mrs. Stead, the owner of " Champion 

 Ranji " and " Rhoda," a winning smoke 

 female, has kindly given me her opinion on 

 smokes : 



" My ideal of perfect smoke cats is that 

 they should be black, shading to smoke grey, 

 with as light an under-coat as possible, light 

 frill and ear tufts, eyes orange. This is the 



dark one, with beautiful light under-coat. I 

 strongly advise all breeders not to despair of 

 colouring until their kittens are fully grown. 

 Permanent markings are, of course, very 

 detrimental, and there is always great anxiety 

 as to the final colour of the eyes. If, however, 

 both parents are good in this respect, the 

 result is generally satisfactory." 



The following article on smoke cats in 

 America is taken from Field and Fancy of 

 October, 1902 : 



" Smokes, with us, will probably rank with 

 the silvers, and are destined to always hold a 

 measure of popularity, though we have not 

 such a very strong lot ; in fact, we may say 



