232 



THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



A GROTESQUELY MARKED KITTEN. 

 (Photo: E. Landor, Baling.) 



I am of opinion that ere long the " any other 

 colour " class, at least at our principal shows, 

 will cease to exist, and mismarked cats, white- 

 spotted cats, and doubtful smokes will no 

 longer be considered worth entering, and fan- 

 'ciers owning such specimens will make up their 

 minds to keep their pets at home. 



For instance, Mrs. Boutcher, a silver 

 breeder, owned a magnificent cat, a son of 

 " Lord Argent." He was a superbly shaped 

 and grandly coated animal, and was neither 

 a silver nor a smoke in fact, what might be 

 termed a silver smoke. His face was dark, 

 and tail and paws, and his body was a pale 

 silver-grey, shaded to almost white at the 

 roots. His owner entered him in the " any 

 other colour " class one year, and he was 

 disqualified by the judge ; then he was next 

 located in the smoke class, but as a different 

 judge was making the awards he was again 

 marked " wrong class." This noble " Lord 

 Sylvester " was the cause of much correspond- 

 ence in the cat papers, and discussion ran high 

 as to what manner of cat he was. One of our 



ablest judges now, alas ! no longer in our 

 midst wrote thus in Our Cats of December 

 1900 : 



SIR, In your issue of the 24th I notice at the 

 meeting of the Silver Society Mr. Boutcher asked the 

 opinion re the decision of myself at the Palace as 

 against that of Mr. House at Brighton. In defence 

 of my own award, I unhesitatingly say that, in 

 the same classification as at the Palace, " Lord 

 Sylvester's" class was the A.O.C., in which I 

 fearlessly awarded him first prize. Of course, Mr. 

 House has just as much right to his opinion as I have 

 to mine ; but, whether right or wrong, / do know 

 " Lord Sylvester " is not a smoke, both on my own 

 knowledge of colour and of that set forth in the 

 standards. I am, yours truly, E. WELBURN. 



Surely this is the common-sense view to 

 take. A year later " Lord Sylvester " was 

 purchased by Mrs. Champion, and travelled 

 out with her to America, where, no doubt, this 

 splendid animal receives all the admiration he 

 deserves, in whatever class he is entered on 

 the other side of the herring pond. 



Since writing these lines I have read an 

 article in Field and Fancy on the New York 

 Cat Show of January, 1903, and the following 

 mention is made : " In the ' any other colour ' 

 ' Lord Sylvester ' was to the front, looking 

 splendid." 



As regards the advisability of doing away 

 with the " any other colour " class, I will quote 

 from a letter written by that well-known 

 fancier Mr. W. R. Hawkins : " Why should 

 one class in a show be given up to the bad 

 specimens or mismarked cats of each colour ? 

 Surely the intended use of the ' any other 

 colour ' class was that when any definite colour 

 had no class of its own it should not be ex- 

 cluded from the show, but take refuge in the 

 ' any other colour ' class ; for instance, at 

 the Brighton show (1900) we had no class for 

 cream, orange, or tortoiseshell. They were, 

 therefore, shown in the ' any other colour ' 

 class, and being good cats of definite breeds 

 were a credit to the class, and in no way a dis- 

 grace. But what do we often see ? A blue 

 with a white spot or some other freak winning. 

 I say this is absolutely wrong, and that a blue 

 with a white spot is in reality a bad blue, and 



