MAXX CATS. 



245 



a Manx cat of the true type should have no 

 particle of tail only a tuft of hair, which 

 ought to be boneless. 



The next point for which I should search 

 would be the length of hind quarters, which 

 lends such great individuality to this breed 

 of cat. Xo doubt the lack of tail in itself 

 makes a cat's hind legs look long, but we 

 want more than that ; we need a very short 

 back, so that from the point of the quarters 

 to the hocks there is a continuous and de- 

 cided outward slope. In fact, the hind legs 

 stand right back from the body, like a well- 

 trained hackney's in the show ring. Coat I 

 should next consider, as this differs, or should 

 differ, considerably from both the long- and 

 short-haired breeds. It should bear more re- 

 semblance to the fur of a rabbit, being longer 

 and softer than that of our common or garden 

 cats. I think a good-shaped round head as 

 desirable in a Manx as in other breeds. As 

 regards colour, the most common would seem 

 to be tabbies, either silver, brown, or orange, 

 and often there is a mixture of white. Self- 

 coloured Manx seem to be much rarer, and 

 Harrison Weir tells us he does not recollect 

 having seen a white Manx. 



As regards the colour of eyes in Manx cats, 

 it is the custom to say that they do not matter 

 in this breed ; but, nevertheless, a cat that 

 has the correct colour of eye must necessarily 

 beat an animal that has just the opposite to 

 what is set forth in the standard for short- 

 haired English cats. 



A lady friend of mine, who was brought up 

 in the Isle of Man, has told me that she always 

 understood that Manx cats came from a cross 

 with a rabbit, but if this supposition is correct 

 it seems too strange to be true that cats and 

 rabbits should only form matrimonial alliances 

 in the little island off our coast ! It would 

 appear more probable, therefore, that a foreign 

 breed of cat was brought to the island, and the 

 following article from the pen of Mr. Gambier 

 Bolton gives his ideas on the subject : 



" In the Isle of Man to-day we find a rock 

 named the Spanish Rock, which stands close 

 into the shore, and tradition states that here 

 16* 



" GOLFSTICKS. 



OWNED BY Miss SAMUELS. 



(Photo: Albert Hester, Clapton, N.E.) 



one of the vessels of the Spanish Armada went 

 down in the memorable year 1558, and that 

 among the rescued were some tailless cats 

 which had been procured during one of the 

 vessel's voyages to the Far East. The cats 

 first swam to the rock, and then made their 

 way to the shore at low tide ; and from these 

 have sprung all the so-called Manx cats which 

 are now to be found in many parts of Great 

 Britain, Europe, and America. 



" The tale seems a bit ' tall,' and yet the 

 writer feels so satisfied of its truth that he 

 would welcome any change in the name of 

 this peculiar variety of the domestic cat to 

 sweep away the idea that they sprang from 

 the Isle of Man originally. 



" Any traveller in the Far East Japan, 

 China, Siam, and the Malay region who is a 

 lover of animals must have noticed how rarely 

 one meets with a really long-tailed cat in these 

 regions, for instead one meets with the kink- 

 tailed (i.e. those with a bend or screw at the 

 tip of the tail), the short kink-tailed (i.e. those 

 with a screw tail like the bull-dogs), the forked- 

 tailed (i.e. those having tails which start quite 

 straight, but near the tip branch out into two 

 forks), and finally the tailless (or miscalled 

 Manx) cats ; and the naturalist Kgempfer states 



