204 



THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



sound throughout ; better be a little dark in 

 colour rather than shade from cream to white, 

 as is the case with so many specimens ex- 

 hibited. 



"For one grand-headed and good-eyed cot 

 you see a dozen snipy, long-faced ones with 

 curious slit eyes, instead of a short, snub head, 

 with glorious big round golden eyes. 



" In my opinion, to get the short head, good 

 eye, fine body shape, and short legs, it is best 

 to mate a cream with a good cobby blue. From 

 my experience nothing beats a blue, although 

 you can mate them with a red, tortoiseshell, 

 or black. Mating two creams together 

 I do not advocate, unless one of them 

 has a distinct out-cross in the first 

 generation to totally different blood. 



"All the creams shown are descended 

 from Miss Beal's two brothers ' Romald- 

 kirk Admiral ' and ' Romaldkirk Mid- 

 shipmite,' and to keep the colour, 

 breeders have bred in and into them 

 again ; and that is why they have 

 lost so much in type and character, 

 which would have been improved by 

 using an out-cross. 



" I have heard people say, ' Cream 

 females will not breed.' If they only 

 studied the question a minute, they 



would know the reason well enough, 

 which is that they have been too much 

 in-bred. If breeders will only try the 

 blue cross more, they will, I am sure, 

 be pleased, and we shall see a better 

 cat being shown. Breeding from blue 

 you will get pure creams and some 

 cream and blue mixed. Keep the blue 

 and cream females, and when old 

 enough mate them to a cream, and 

 you will get some fine sound-coloured 

 cream kits. 



" It is very curious that there has 

 been nothing yet bred in males to beat 

 the twin cats ' Admiral ' and ' Mid- 

 shipmite.' 



" In females the best I have seen is 

 ' Miriam of the Durhams,' who has a 

 lovely body and coat, but is long in face 

 and has those bad-shaped eyes. ' Creme d'Or ' 

 runs her close, as she has such a good head, 

 with perfect eye, but is a wee bit long in the leg." 

 Miss Beal's females "Calliope" and "Mignon- 

 ette " were both noted prize-winning cream 

 females. Mrs. D'Arcy Hildyard has been most 

 successful in her endeavours to breed creams 

 from creams, and a letter from her in Our Cats 

 of April, IQOI, will be interesting to breeders 

 of this variety : 



BREEDING OF CREAMS. 



SIR, Being much interested in the breeding of 

 creams, I should like to say a few words on the 



MRS. D'ARCY HILDYARD'S CREAM KITTENS. 



(Photo : E. Yeoman, Barnard Castle.) 



