TORTOISESHELL PERSIANS. 



209 



any great size, and may be called a small 

 breed of Persian cats. I give the list of points 

 as drawn up by the specialist society : 



TORTOISESHELL. 



Colour and marking. The three colours black, 

 orange, and yellow to be well broken and as bright 

 and well denned as possible ; free from tabby mark- 

 ings, no white. 30. 



Coat. To be silky, very long, and fluffy. 20. 



Size and shape. To be large not coarse, but 

 massive, with plenty of bone and substance ; short 

 legs. 25. 



Head. To be round and broad, with short nose, 

 ears small and well opened. 15. 



Eyes. To be large and full, and bright orange or 

 hazel in colour. 5. 



Condition. 10. 



They are quite one of the most interesting 

 from which to breed, and experiments can be 

 tried successfully in crossing a tortoiseshell 

 queen with black, cream, orange, and blue 

 cats. The litters will often be a study in 

 variety. I have known one family to consist 

 of a black, a white, a cream, an orange, and 

 a blue ! The owner of such a litter would 

 have something to suit all comers. A really 

 good tortoiseshell queen may, therefore, be 

 considered a valuable property. And what of 

 a tortoiseshell torn ? A mine of wealth would 

 such a possession be to any fancier. Among 

 short-haired cats a tortoiseshell torn is a rare 

 animal, but I do not think a long-haired speci- 

 men has ever been seen or heard of. Several 

 experiments have been tried, but it remains 

 for some skilful and scientific breeder to solve 

 the problem of the manner and means to be 

 employed to produce males of this breed. The 

 classification at our smaller shows for tortoise- 

 shells is generally of a meagre and discouraging 

 description. There are so few specimens that 

 executives of shows fight shy of giving a class 

 for even tortoiseshell and tortoiseshcll-and- 

 white together. So tortoiseshells are mixed 

 up in the " any other colour " class, and there- 

 fore this breed can seldom, if ever, be really 

 judged on its own merits, or comparisons made 

 between the different specimens that are ex- 

 hibited. At our largest shows there are classes 

 provided, which, however, are poorly filled. 

 14 



Tortoiseshells may be said to have had 

 no past. There are no celebrities in feline 

 history save and except " Queen Elizabeth," 

 and not only was she the finest of her breed, 

 but she also made her name famous by severely 

 injuring Mr. W. R. Hawkins, who was examin- 

 ing her when making his awards ; and I have 

 good reason or rather bad reason for recol- 

 lecting her, on account of her fixing her teeth 

 into my hand when I was removing her from 

 her basket to pen her at the Westminster show 

 in 1899. It seems that she had a great objec- 

 tion to travelling, and resented making an 

 exhibition of herself in public ! She was a 

 grand specimen, however, and, besides always 

 carrying off highest honours herself, she was 

 the mother of many prize-winning orange and 

 tortoiseshell cats, amongst others " Prince 

 Charlie," "Prince Lyne," and " Mattie." I 

 have failed to obtain a photograph of this 

 celebrated cat ; and, even had I succeeded, 

 a tortoiseshell makes a tetribly poor picture 

 when reproduced in photography, for the 

 reason that the yellow comes out only fairly 

 light, the orange appearing as dark as the 

 black patches. 



Miss H. Cochran had a dear old pet puss 

 called "Brunette," a dark tortoiseshell, and 

 from her were bred 

 some of the first 

 cream females ever 

 exhibited. The 

 Hon. Mrs. 

 McLaren 

 M orrison 

 has a good 

 tortoise- 



Miss H. COCHRAN'S TORTOISESHELL " BKUXETTK." 



