SOME FOREIGN CATS. 



301 



tail ; its voice also resem- 

 bled that of the Siamese. 

 In colour it was grey, 

 with darker spots. 



A very taking variety 

 is the Abyssinian. A 

 good specimen should 

 very strongly resemble 

 what one might well ex- 

 pect the Egyptian cat to 

 become after generations 

 of domestication. Since 

 the death of " Sedgemere 

 Bottle " and " Sedgemere 

 Peaty " there have been 

 no cats penned of such 

 superlative merit as were 

 these two specimens. The 

 photograph of " Sedgemere 

 Peaty " which we give 

 hardly does justice to the 

 cat. The colour of an 



Abyssinian should be a sort of reddish-fawn, 

 each individual hair being " ticked " like that 

 of a wild rabbit hence the popular name of 

 " bunny cat." The great difficulty in breed- 

 ing these cats is their tendency to come too 

 dark and too heavily striped on the limbs ; 

 the face should be rather long, the tail short 

 and thick, and the ears large. These points 

 are well shown by " Little Bunny Teedle Tit," 

 first in the Abyssinian class at the 1902 

 Crystal Palace cat show, though in colour she 

 was not the best penned. The Abyssinian 

 should not be a large, coarse cat. A small 

 cat of delicate colouring and with the above- 

 mentioned body properties is by far to be pre- 

 ferred to the large, coarse, dark specimens one 

 sees winning under some all-round judges, 

 merely because of their size. 



More than any other varieties have the 

 foreign cats suffered from the negligence of show 

 committees and the awful judging of all-round 

 judges, plus the equally awful reports fur- 

 nished by all-round reporters ! At the best, 

 knowledge of the different varieties of foreign 

 cats is absolutely in its infancy. It should be 

 the aim of large shows to provide, whenever 



MANX AND ABYSSINIAN (" SEDGEMERE PEATY " ON THE RIGHT). 



(Photo : A. R. Dresser.) 



possible, judges for these interesting strangers 

 who do really take some interest in them. I am 

 bound to say that of late years the National 

 Cat Club has done its best to meet the wishes 

 of owners in this respect, and with gratifying 

 results, as witness the good classes at the 

 Crystal Palace show, where there were no 

 fewer than eleven Abyssinians penned a 

 record number ! 



The Cat Club, on the other hand, has persist- 

 ently neglected them, having on almost every 

 occasion handed them over to some all-round 

 judge who knows little and cares less about 

 them, with the natural result that exhibitors 

 are disgusted. Take, for instance, the last 

 show, when a very dark, almost sooty Abys- 

 sinian was placed above a very fair specimen 

 merely because the latter had about a dozen 

 white hairs on its throat ! The value of the 

 winner may be gauged from the fact that its 

 owner, a lady well known in the cat world, 

 expressed her intention of having him neu- 

 tered and keeping him merely as a pet. The 

 same judge, in dividing the prizes amongst the 

 Manx cats, appeared to think the colour of the 

 throat of far more importance than the shape 



