The Cat Tribe 



73 



J-hoto hi/ Jl. Landor] 



LONG-HAIRED CHINCHILLA. 

 Kote the Ijeautiful " fluffiness " of this cat's fu- 



[Ealuirj. 



for shape and vari(:'ty of colourinij; it has no 

 equal in any otlicr tiilx^ of cat. It has 

 comprised in its naturi^ all the really gi-eat 

 qualities of the feline, and all its \yorst attri- 

 butes. Yon can truthfully say of one of its 

 specimens that it attaches itself to the indi- 

 vidual, while of another in tlio same litter you 

 will get an element of wildness. A third of the 

 same parents will sober down to the house, 

 but take only a }iassing notice of people. You 

 can teach it anything if it is tractable, make 

 it follow like a dog, come to whistle, liut it will 

 have its independence. 



The Sand-coloured Cat, with a whole- 

 coloured coat, like the raljbit, which we know- 

 as the Abyssimax or BrxNY Cat, is a strong 

 African type. Cn the (lold Coast it comes 



down from the inland country with its ears all bitten and torn away in its fights with rivals. 



It has been acclimatised in England, and Devonshire and Cornwall hiive both established a 



new and distinct tribe out of its pjarentage. The Manx Cat is nearly allied to it, and 



a hundred years ago the tailless cat w'as called the Cornwall Cat, not the Manx. 



Siain sends us a regal animal in the Siamese Koyal Cat ; it has a brown face, legs, and 



tail, a cream-colom-ecl body, and mau\'e or blue eyes. The Siamese take great care of their 



cats, for it is believed that the souls of the departed are transmitted into the bodies of animals, 



and the cat is a favourite of their creed; consequently the cats are highly cultivated and 



intelligent, and can think out ways and means to attain an end. 



I have tried for years to trace the origin of the Long-haired or Persian Cats, but I cannot 



find that they were known to antiquity, and even the records of later times only mention the 



Shokt-HAIRED. European literature does not give us an insight into the sul)ject ; and unless 



Chinese history holds some hidden 



lights in its records, we are thrown 



back npjon the myths of Persia to 



account for the wonderful modern 



distribution of the long-haired cat, 



which is gradually breeding out 



into as many varieties as the short- 

 haired, with this difference — that 



greater care and troul^le are taken 



over the long-haired, and they will, 



as a breed, probably soon surpass 



the short-haired for -'ntelligence and 



culture. 



One variety is quite new and 



distinctive — the Smoke Long- 

 haired, whose dark lirown or black 



surface-coat, blown aside, shows 



an under-coat of blue and silver, 



with a light brown frill round its 



neck. All the other long-haired cats 



.,, ,, , , T_ . -, r FJiOtolni H. Trevor Jessoi^. 



can pair with the short-haired tor „ , 



r . THE '-BUN OR ''TICKED SHORT-HAIRED CAT. 



colouring and marking, but I have ^^^ .^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^..^^.^^j ^^^^^ j^ £^,1^^^ ^ belongs to Miss K. Mand Bennett wlio haa 



not vet seen a Bunny Long-haired. tindij had it photographed tor this ivoik. 



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