320 



THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



MALTESE CATS. 



A great deal of interest has been taken in 

 England in the subject of blue cats in America, 

 which are often called Maltese, and really among 

 the rank and rile of the public this is the name 

 they go by. So celebrated had some strains 

 become that off-coloured cats bred from these 

 cats are sometimes called Maltese, and the 

 idea seemed to have gained considerable 

 ground that this was a separate breed ; but 

 evidence of this fact is very much lacking in 

 most parts, and in travelling over a good deal 

 of the country and finding them thousands oi 

 miles apart, I must confess that I have never 

 been able to trace the origin of these cats nor 

 to find out any reason for their numbers. 



I have been led to think that they are 

 the same, or were the same, in the beginning 

 as the blue Russian or Archangel cat, and 

 that they were brought to this country many 

 years ago, and that the name was given them 

 by sailors or others. The tradition possibly 

 has been handed down in the same way as the 

 name of Angora has remained fastened to the 

 long-hairs with the average public here, and 

 will be many more years in dying, for the band 

 of fanciers who know better is but a drop in 

 the bucket in this great land. No doubt the 

 name of Maltese moved with the cat to the 

 west as families moved, for in the case of 

 native-born Americans the migration west 

 has been often gradual : thus some moved, 

 we will say, as far as Ohio, their sons and 

 daughters moved to Illinois, and the next 

 generation went still further, and the much- 

 prized Maltese cat drifted on with his 

 name. 



Probably a good many of the so-called 

 Maltese are just blue specimens of the ordin- 

 ary short-haired cat ; and, in fact, there has 

 never been anyone of my acquaintance who 

 had any ideas as to points or type ; but the 

 colour was the feature to be looked at. We 

 find Maltese cats of the short and cobby 

 type besides the long and more extended 

 species, but the latter predominate, and I 

 am inclined to agree with some English judges 

 that the fairly long cats with a cleaner cut 



head are the purer type of blue cat. On some, 

 when judging, I find very good heads with 

 clean-cut features, round, well-developed cheeks, 

 with fairly long bodies, very even in colour. 

 No doubt the preponderance of blue cats 

 before the advent of the cat shows was largely 

 owing to the selection of blue kittens in the 

 litters, which left a great many blue sires to 

 roam the streets by night and sire blue kittens. 



In many cases I have found families who 

 had never heard of cat shows that had strains 

 of blue or Maltese cats, and took pride in keep- 

 ing the strain as pure as possible. And one 

 great factor is that the blues have always had 

 the name of being excellent mousers, and were 

 valued as such. Besides this supposed strong 

 point in their composition, they have always 

 had a reputation for great intelligence and 

 of being good-tempered and reliable about 

 the house with children and young folk. 



Like the Plymouth Rock fowl, the Maltese 

 cat has been one of the institutions of the 

 American continent, and there seems to be 

 some ground for believing the original tradi- 

 tion connected with the name Maltese 

 that the Maltese cat came from the East 

 and was treasured as something out of the 

 common, and fell among friends. Some are 

 light and some are dark, and some have 

 the white spot on the chest, but on most 

 there is not much evidence of tabby mark- 

 ings ; neither do you see this in the young 

 kittens in the same way as the Russians 

 are said to be at an early age. I have seen 

 five and six pure light blue kittens in a litter, 

 and the father and mother were both of the 

 same colour. 



In quite out-of-the-way places you will, 

 upon going to judge the short-hairs, find some 

 blues, and often with deep brown eyes ; and 

 if I were to make a comparison between the 

 average American blue and what I saw in 

 England as Russians, I should say the American 

 cats are mostly lighter in colour, and do not 

 have quite so glossy coats. Perhaps if taken 

 up and selected for a few generations, these 

 features would come out more strongly. 



One of the worst features of the popularity 



