i8 7 



MRS. SINGLETON'S " ORANGE GIRL. 



(Photo : J. G. Christopher, Crcwkerne.) 



CHAPTER XV. 



ORANGE PERSIANS. 



IN the short-haired varieties, these cats 

 are sometimes called red tabbies ; but 

 I do not think the term gives such a 

 true idea of the correct tone of colour, which 

 should be just that of a ripe orange when in 

 perfection. As I write I have in my mind's 

 eye the mass of bright colour presented by a 

 pile of oranges in a greengrocer's shop, and 

 this is the tone that is to be desired in our 

 orange cats. There is a dash of red in the 

 ideal orange cat, suggestive, perhaps, of the 

 blood-oranges with which at Christmastide we 

 are familiar. Anyhow, an orange cat should 

 be as far removed as possible both from sandy 

 or yellow or, as I have heard them called, 

 lemon-coloured cats. 



I have left out the term " tabby " from the 

 heading of this chapter, and I think advisedly ; 

 for in the Persian varieties the markings are 

 gradually but surely vanishing, and orange 

 cats may be said to stand in the same relation 

 to orange tabbies as shaded silvers do to silver 

 tabbies. I mean that most of the orange 



Persians now exhibited have shaded bodies, 

 with tabby marking on head, face, and paws. 

 The body markings, never very strong in 

 Persian tabbies, are even less distinct in the 

 orange than in the silver varieties. It may 

 therefore be said that in judging this breed 

 as they are represented in the show pen to- 

 day, colour is taken into consideration first, 

 and tabby markings are of less account. As 

 regards other distinctive features of this breed, 

 I may say that it is the exception, and not the 

 rule, to find good round heads and short noses. 

 The longest faces I have ever seen in any 

 felines have been those possessed by orange 

 Persian and short-haired cats. I have really 

 sometimes felt quite sorry for a magnificent 

 puss of this colour whose nose was so self- 

 assertive that every other point, however 

 excellent, seemed to be lost sight of, and that 

 nose with the accentuated terminus stood out 

 with distressing prominence. Until the year 

 1894 the classification at the Crystal Palace 

 was " brown or red tabby, with or without 



