COLOUR BREEDING. 



349 



fawn-coloured cats, often called creams, which 

 are more common and easy to breed. Though 

 creams and fawns occasionally appear in the 

 same litter this is generally 

 the fault of their ancestors, 

 and can be accounted for if 

 the pedigree is known on both 

 sides. As a matter of fact, 

 I have never seen one of 

 these clear yellow creams 

 which was not descended, 

 however remotely, from 

 Mrs. Kinchant's strain. Ex- 

 amples of the colour I mean 

 are "Cupid Bassanio," 

 "Zoroaster," " Dairy Maid," 

 " Mistletoe," and a few of 

 their descendants. 



To breed fawn creams is, 

 comparatively, a simple mat- 

 ter, as a cross of blue and 

 orange will almost invari- 

 ably produce some fawn 

 kittens, especially if the dam 

 is blue. When the dam is orange or tortoise- 

 shell there will often be a number of blue 

 tortoiseshell kittens which are valueless. 

 Some people like them to breed fawn creams 

 from, but I have never found them more use- 

 ful for this purpose than a correctly coloured 

 tortoiseshell. 



Tortoiseshells are entirely neglected by 

 fanciers nowadays, and are only used as a 

 stepping-stone to more fashionable colours. 

 There is no doubt that a tortoiseshell can be 

 got to breed anything ! I knew a queen which 

 bred magnificent blacks, blues, creams, oranges, 

 fawns, and smokes, whether mated to a blue, 

 a cream, or a smoke, and I believe she also 

 threw chinchilla kittens to a chinchilla sire. 

 To breed tortoiseshells for the show pen we 

 must not indulge in any haphazard matings. 

 The fault of the tortoiseshells is, as a rule, that 

 the red and yellow has run all over the black, 

 and instead of having a clear patchwork of red, 

 yellow, and black, we have a blur containing 



" HOLMLEA THISTLEDOWN. 

 OWNED BY MRS. KEEP, SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES 



a preponderance of yellow. The obvious 

 remedy is our old friend the black. All the 

 best tortoiseshells are bred from blacks, and 

 a black and a red tabby or 

 orange will generally throw 

 some good tortoiseshells. To 

 produce tortoiseshell-and- 

 whites cross a tortoiseshell 

 with a black-and-white rather 

 than with a white, but avoid 

 red tabby, as a tortoiseshell- 

 and - white cat frequently 

 shows tabby markings for 

 this breeding. 



The red tabby has nearly 

 died out among long-haired 

 cats, though it flourishes in 

 the short-haired variety, but 

 by crossing a brown tabby 

 with an orange it might be 

 revived. No doubt there 

 would be a few mis-marked 

 kittens in the litter, but the 

 chances would be in favour 

 of a good red tabby, and the colour could 

 then be preserved by crossing with black 

 and tortoiseshell only. 



Of course, it is no use trying experiments in 

 cross-breeding in the hope of obtaining definite 

 results unless we are satisfied as to the pedi- 

 gree of the cats employed for at least two 

 generations, or all our calculations may be 

 upset. For example, when breeding for 

 chinchillas, if we used a black bred from 

 a brown tabby mother the results would be 

 disastrous. 



A point to be carefully noted in cross- 

 breeding is to select a cat with eyes of a colour 

 desired in the breed which he is destined to 

 improve, whether those eyes would be correct 

 in his own family or not. This suggests a use 

 for our rejected green-eyed blues and blaeks 

 and our orange-eyed silvers. 



My notes, as may be observed, are on the 

 subject of long-haired cats, but they will be 

 found equally applicable to short-hairs. 



HESTER COCHRAN. 



