Concerning Varieties of Cats 



hsA been offered in England for a male tortoise-shell 

 cat. This is probably not true, as a Mr. Smith ex- 

 hibited a tortoise-shell he-cat at the Crystal Palace 

 Show of 1 871. Several tortoise-shell and white toms 

 have been exhibited since, and one of these has taken 

 nine first prizes at the Crystal Palace Show ; but the 

 tortoise-shell he-cat is extremely rare. The real tor- 

 toise-shell is not a striped tiger nor a tabby. It has 

 three colors usually, black, yellow, and red or brown ; 

 but these appear in patches rather than stripes. It 

 is said that the tortoise-shell cat is common in Egypt 

 and the south of Europe. It comes from a different 

 stock than the ordinary short-haired cat, the texture 

 of the hair being different, as well as the color. The 

 tortoise-shell and white cat is much more common, 

 and is the product of a cross between a tortoise-shell 

 and a solid color cat. In this case the hair is usually 

 coarser and the tail thicker than in the ordinary cat. 



Among cat fanciers there is a distinctive variety 

 known as the tortoise-shell tabby. As the tabby cat 

 is one of the varieties of striped or spotted cats hav- 

 ing markings, broad or narrow, of bands of black on 

 a dark tan or gray ground, the tortoise-shell cat 

 would have both stripeti and patches of color. 



Of the tabbies, there are brown tabbies, silver 

 tabbies, and red tabbies. It is said that the red 

 tabby she-cat is as scarce as the tortoise-shell he-cat. 

 The ordinary observer considers the brown tabby with 

 white markings as much the handsomest of the 



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