mane, or it was an accidental variation of nature. I once bred a
long-haired rabbit in a similar way, but at first I failed entirely to
perpetuate the peculiarity. I think the above simply "a sport."
[Illustration: MISS MARY GRESHAM'S PERSIAN KITTEN, "LAMBKIN NO. 2."]
[Illustration: MISS MOORE'S "BOGEY."]
I have now concluded my remarks on the long-haired varieties of cats
that I am at present acquainted with. They are an exceedingly
interesting section; their habits, manners, forms, and colours form a by
no means unprofitable study for those fond of animal life, as they, in
my opinion, differ in many ways from those of their "short-haired"
brethren. I shall not cease, however, in my endeavours to find out if
any other long-haired breeds exist, and I am, therefore, making
inquiries in every direction in which I deem it likely I shall get an
increase of information on the subject, but hitherto without any
success. Therefore, I am led to suppose that the three I have
enumerated are the only domesticated long-haired varieties. The nearest
approach, I believe, to these in the wild state is that of the British
wild cat, which has in some instances a mane and a bushy tail, slightly
resembling that of the Russian long-hair, with much of the same facial
expression, and rather pointed tufts at the apex of the ears. It is also
large, like some of the "long-haired" cats that I have seen; in fact, it
far more resembles these breeds than those of the short hair. I was much
struck with the many points of similitude on seeing the British wild cat
exhibited by the Duke of Sutherland at the first cat show at the Crystal
Palace in July, 1871. I merely offer this as an idea for further
consideration. At the same time, allow me to say that I have had no
opportunity of studying the anatomy of the British wild cat, in
contradistinction to that of the Russian, or others with long hair. I
only wish to point out what I term a general resemblance, far in excess
of those with short hair. I am fully aware how difficult it is to trace
any origin of the domestic cat, or from what breeds; it is also said,
that the British wild cat is not one of them, still I urge there exists
the similarity I mention; whether it is so apparent to others I know
not.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: MR. SMITH'S PRIZE HE-CAT.]
THE TORTOISESHELL CAT.
I now come to the section of the short-haired domestic cat, a variety
possessing sub-varieties. Whether these all came from the same origin is
doubtful, although in breeding many of the different colours will breed
back to the striped or tabby colour, and, _per contra_, white
whole-coloured cats are often got from striped or spotted parents, and
_vice versa_. Those that have had any experience of breeding
domesticated animals or birds, know perfectly well how difficult it is
to keep certain peculiarities gained by years of perseverance of
breeding for such points of variation, or what is termed excellence.
Place a few fancy pigeons, for instance, in the country and let them
match how they like, and one would be quite surprised, unless he were a
naturalist, to note the great changes that occur in a few years, and the
unmistakable signs of reversion towards their ancestral stock--that of
the Rock pigeon. But with the cat this is somewhat different, as little
or no attempts have been made, as far as I know of, until cat shows were
instituted, to improve any particular breed either in form or colour.
Nor has it even yet, with the exception of the long-haired cats. Why
this is so I am at a loss to understand, but the fact remains. Good
well-developed cats of certain colours fetch large prices, and are, if I
may use the term, perpetual prize-winners. I will take as an instance
the tortoiseshell tom, he, or male cat as one of the most scarce, and
the red or yellow tabby she-cat as the next; and yet the possessor of
either, with proper care and attention, I have little or no doubt, has
it in his power to produce either variety _ad libitum_. It is now many
years since I remember the first "tortoiseshell tom-cat;" nor can I now
at this distance of time quite call to mind whether or not it was not a
tortoiseshell-and-white, and not a tortoiseshell pure and simple. It was
exhibited in Piccadilly. If I remember rightly, I made a drawing of it,
but as it is about forty years ago, of this I am not certain, although I
have lately been told that I did, and that the price asked for the cat
was 100 guineas.
[Illustration: EXAMPLE OF TORTOISESHELL CAT, VERY DARK VARIETY.]
This supposed scarcity was rudely put aside by the appearance, at the
Crystal Palace Show of 1871, of no less than one tortoiseshell he-cat
(exhibited by Mr. Smith) and three tortoiseshell-and-white he-cats, but
it will be observed there was really but only one tortoiseshell he-cat,
the others having white. On referring to the catalogues of the
succeeding shows, no other pure tortoiseshell has been exhibited, and he
ceased to appear after 1873; but tortoiseshell-and-white have been shown
from 1871, varying in number from five to three until 1885. One of
these, a tortoiseshell-and-white belonging to Mr. Hurry, gained no fewer
than nine first prizes at the Crystal Palace, besides several firsts at
other shows; this maintains my statement, that a really good scarce
variety of cats is a valuable investment, Mr. Hurry's cat Totty keeping
up his price of L100 till the end.
As may have been gathered from the foregoing remarks, the points of the
tortoiseshell he-cat are, black-red and yellow in patches, but no
_white_. The colouring should be in broad, well-defined blotches and
solid in colour, not mealy or tabby-like in the marking, but clear,
sharp, and distinct, and the richer and deeper the colours the better.
When this is so the animal presents a very handsome appearance. The eyes
should be orange, the tail long and thick towards the base, the form
slim, graceful, and elegant, and not too short on the leg, to which this
breed has a tendency. Coming then to the actual tortoiseshell he, or
male cat without white, I have never seen but one at the Shows, and that
was exhibited by Mr. Smith. It does not appear that Mr. Smith bred any
from it, nor do I know whether he took any precautions to do so; but if
not, I am still of the opinion that more might have been produced. In
Cassell's "Natural History," it is stated that the tortoiseshell cat is
quite common in Egypt and in the south of Europe. This I can readily
believe, as I think that it comes from a different stock than the usual
short-haired cat, the texture of the hair being different, the form of
tail also. I should much like to know whether in that country, where the
variety is so common, there exists any number of tortoiseshell he-cats.
In England the he-kittens are almost invariably red-tabby or
red-tabby-and-white; the red-tabby she-cats are almost as scarce as
tortoiseshell-and-white he-cats. Yet if red-tabby she-cats can be
produced, I am of opinion that tortoiseshell he-cats could also. I had
one of the former, a great beauty, and hoped to perpetuate the breed,
but it unfortunately fell a victim to wires set by poachers for game.
Again returning to the tortoiseshell, I have noted that, in drawings
made by the Japanese, the cats are always of this colour; that being so,
it leads one to suppose that in that country tortoiseshell he-cats must
be plentiful. Though the drawings are strong evidence, they are not
absolute proof. I have asked several travelling friends questions as
regards the Japanese cats, but in no case have I found them to have
taken sufficient notice for their testimony to be anything else than
worthless. I shall be very thankful for any information on this subject,
for to myself, and doubtless also to many others, it is exceedingly
interesting. Any one wishing to breed rich brown tabbies, should use a
tortoiseshell she-cat with a very brown and black-banded he-cat. They
are not so good from the spotted tabby, often producing merely
tortoiseshell tabbies instead of brown tabbies, or true tortoiseshells.
My remarks as to the colouring of the tortoiseshell he-cat are equally
applicable to the she-cat, which should not have any white. Of the
tortoiseshell-and-white hereafter.
To breed tortoiseshell he-cats, I should use males of a whole colour,
such as either white, black, or blue; and on no account any tabby, no
matter the colour. What is wanted is patches of colour, not tiny streaks
or spots; and I feel certain that, for those who persevere, there will
be successful results.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE TORTOISESHELL-AND-WHITE CAT.
This is a more common mixture of colouring than the tortoiseshell pure
and simple without white, and seems to be widely spread over different
parts of the world. It is the opinion of some that this colour and the
pure tortoiseshell is the original domestic cat, and that the other
varieties of marking and colours are but deviations produced by
crossing with wild varieties. My brother, John Jenner Weir, F.L.S.,
F.Z.S., holds somewhat to this opinion; but, to me, it is rather
difficult to arrive at this conclusion. In fact, I can scarcely
realise the ground on which the theory is based--at the same time, I
do not mean to ignore it entirely. And yet, if this be so, from what
starting-point was the original domestic cat derived, and by what
means were the rich and varied markings obtained? I am fully aware
that by selection cats with large patches of colour may be obtained;
still, there remain the peculiar markings of the tortoiseshell. Nor is
this by any means an uncommon colour, not only in this country, but in
many others, and there also appears to be a peculiar fixedness of
this, especially in the female, but why it is not so in the male I am
at a loss to understand, the males almost invariably coming either
red-tabby or red-tabby-and-white. One would suppose that black or
white would be equally likely; but, as far as my observations take me,
this is not so, though I have seen both pure white, yellow, red, and
black in litters of kittens, but this might be different were the he
parent tortoiseshell.
Some years ago I was out with a shooting party not far from
Snowdon, in Wales, when turning past a large rock I came on a
sheltered nook, and there in a nest made of dry grasses laid six
tortoiseshell-and-white kittens about eight to ten days old. I was
much surprised at this, as I did not know of any house near,
therefore these must have been the offspring of some cat or cats
that were leading a roving or wild life, and yet it had no effect
as to the deviation of the colour. I left them there, and without
observing the sex. I was afterwards sorry, as it is just possible,
though scarcely probable, that one or more of the six, being all
of the same colour, might have proved to be a male. As I left the
neighbourhood a few days after I saw no more of them, nor have I
since heard of any being there; so conclude they in some way were
destroyed.
I have observed in the breed of tortoiseshell or
tortoise-shell-and-white that the hair is of a coarser texture than
the ordinary domestic cat, and that the tail is generally thicker,
especially at the base, though some few are thin-tailed; yet I prefer
the thick and tapering form. Some are very much so, and of a good
length; the legs are generally somewhat short; I do not ever remember
seeing a really long-legged tortoiseshell, though when this is so if
not too long it adds much to its grace of action. I give a drawing of
what I consider to be a GOOD tortoiseshell-and-white tom or he-cat. It
will be observed that there is more white on the chest, belly, and
hind legs than is allowable in the black-and-white cat. This I deem
necessary for artistic beauty, when the colour is laid on in
_patches_, although it should be even, clear, and distinct in its
outline; the larger space of white adds brilliancy to the red, yellow,
and black colouring. The face is one of the parts which should have
some uniformity of colour, and yet not so, but a mere _balancing_ of
colour; that is to say, that there should be a _relief_ in black, with
the yellow and red on each side, and so in the body and tail. The nose
should be white, the eyes orange, and the whole colouring rich and
varied without the least _Tabbyness_, either brown or gray or an
approach to it, such being highly detrimental to its beauty.
I have received a welcome letter from Mr. Herbert Young, of James
Street, Harrogate, informing me of the existence of what is said to be
a tortoiseshell tom or he-cat somewhere in Yorkshire, and the price is
fifty guineas; but he, unfortunately, has forgotten the exact address.
He also kindly favours me with the further information of a
tortoiseshell-and-white he-cat. He describes it as "splendid," and
"extra good in colour," and it is at present in the vicinity of
Harrogate. And still further, Mr. Herbert Young says, "I am breeding
from a dark colour cat and two tortoiseshell females," and he hopes,
by careful selection, to succeed in "breeding the other colour out."
This, I deem, is by no means an unlikely thing to happen, and, by
careful management, may not take very long to accomplish; but much
depends on the ancestry, or rather the pedigree of both sides. I for
one most heartily wish Mr. Herbert Young success, and it will be most
gratifying should he arrive at the height of his expectations. Failing
the producing of the desired colour in the he-cats by the legitimate
method of tortoiseshell with tortoiseshell, I would advise the trial
of some _whole_ colours, such as solid black and white. This _may_
prove a better way than the other, as we pigeon fanciers go an
apparently roundabout way often to obtain what we want to attain in
colour, and yet there is almost a certainty in the method.
As regards the tortoiseshell cat, there is a distinct variety known to
us cat fanciers as the tortoiseshell-tabby. This must not be
confounded with the true variety, as it consists only of a variegation
in colour of the yellow, the red, and the dark tabby, and is more in
lines than patches, or patches of lines or spots. These are by no
means ugly, and a well-marked, richly-coloured specimen is really very
handsome. They may also be intermixed with white, and should be marked
the same as the true tortoiseshell; but in competition with the _real_
tortoiseshell they would stand _no chance_ whatever, and ought in my
opinion to be disqualified as being wrong class, and be put in that
for "any other colour."
[Illustration: MRS. VYVYAN'S ROYAL CAT OF SIAM.]
[Illustration: BROWN TABBY--BARS THE RIGHT WIDTH.]
THE BROWN TABBY CAT.
The tabby cat is doubtless one of, if not the most common of colours,
and numbers many almost endless varieties of both tint and markings. Of
these those with very broad bands of black, or narrow bands of black, on
nearly a black ground, are usually called black tabby, and if the bands
are divided into spots instead of being in continuous lines, then it is
a spotted black tabby; but I purpose in this paper to deal mostly with
the brown tabby--that is to say, a tabby, whose ground colour is of a
very rich, orangey, dark brown ground, without any white, and that is
evenly, proportionably, and not too broadly but elegantly marked on the
face, head, breast, sides, back, belly, legs, and tail with bands of
solid, deep, shining black. The front part of the head or face and legs,
breast, and belly should have a more rich red orange tint than the back,
but which should be nearly if not equal in depth of colour, though
somewhat browner; the markings should be graceful in curve, sharply,
well, and clearly defined, with fine deep black edges, so that the brown
and black are clear and distinct the one from the other, not blurred in
any way. The banded tabby should not be spotted in any way, excepting
those few that nearly always occur on the face and sometimes on the
fore-legs. The clearer, redder, and brighter the brown the better. The
nose should be deep red, bordered with black; the eyes an orange colour,
slightly diffused with green; in form the head should not be large, nor
too wide, being rather longer than broad, so as not to give too round or
clumsy an appearance; ears not large nor small, but of moderate size,
and of good form; legs medium length, rather long than short, so as not
to lose grace of action; body long, narrow, and deep towards the fore
part. Tail long, and gradually tapering towards the point; feet round,
with black claws, and black pads; yellowish-white around the black lips
and brown whiskers are allowable, but orange-tinted are far preferable,
and pure white should disqualify. A cat of this description is now
somewhat rare. What are generally shown as _brown_ tabbies are not
sufficiently _orange-brown_, but mostly of a dark, brownish-gray. This
is simply the ordinary tabby, and not the _brown_ tabby proper.
[Illustration: BROWN TABBY--MARKINGS MUCH TOO WIDE.]
As I stated in my notes on the Tortoiseshell cat, the best parents to
obtain a good brown tabby from is to have a strongly marked, not too
broad-banded tabby he-cat and a tortoiseshell she-cat with little black,
or red tabby she-cat, the produce being, when tabby, generally of a rich
brown, or sometimes what is termed black tabby, and also red tabby. The
picture illustrating these notes is from one so bred, and is a
particularly handsome specimen. There were two he-cats in the litter,
one the dark-brown tabby just mentioned, which I named Aaron, and the
other, a very fine red tabby, Moses. This last was even a finer animal
than Aaron, being very beautiful in colour and very large in size; but
he, alas! like many others, was caught in wires set by poachers, and was
found dead. His handsome brother still survives, though no longer my
property. The banded red tabby should be marked precisely the same as
the brown tabby, only the bands should be of deep red on an orange
ground, the deeper in colour the better; almost a chocolate on orange is
very fine. The nose deep pink, as also the pads of the feet. The
ordinary dark tabby the same way as the brown, and so also the blue or
silver, only the ground colour should be of a pale, soft, _blue_
colour--not the slightest tint of brown in it. The clearer, the
_lighter_, and brighter the blue the better, bearing in mind always that
the bands should be of a _jet black_, sharply and _very clearly
defined_.
[Illustration: WELL-MARKED PRIZE SILVER TABBY.]
The word tabby was derived from a kind of taffeta, or ribbed silk, which
when calendered or what is now termed "watered," is by that process
covered with wavy lines. This stuff, in bygone times, was often called
"tabby:" hence the cat with lines or markings on its fur was called a
"tabby" cat. But it might also, one would suppose, with as much justice,
be called a taffety cat, unless the calendering of "taffety" caused it
to become "tabby." Certain it is that the word tabby only referred to
the marking or stripes, not to the absolute colour, for in "Wit and
Drollery" (1682), p. 343, is the following:--
"Her petticoat of satin,
Her gown of crimson tabby."
Be that as it may, I think there is little doubt that the foregoing was
the origin of the term. Yet it was also called the brinded cat, or the
brindled cat, also tiger cat, with some the gray cat, graymalkin; but I
was rather unprepared to learn that in Norfolk and Suffolk it is called
a Cyprus cat. "Why Cyprus cat?" quoth I. "I do not know," said my
informant. "All I know is, that such is the case."
So I referred to my Bailey's Dictionary of 1730, and there, "sure
enough," was the elucidation; for I found that Cyprus was a kind of
cloth made of silk and hair, showing wavy lines on it, and coming from
Cyprus; therefore this somewhat strengthens the argument in favour of
"taffeta," or "tabby," but it is still curious that the Norfolk and
Suffolk people should have adopted a kind of cloth as that representing
the markings and colour of the cat, and that of a different name from
that in use for the cat--one or more counties calling it a "tabby cat,"
as regards colour, and the other naming the same as "Cyprus." I take
this to be exceedingly interesting. How or when such naming took place
I am at present unable to get the least clue, though I think from what I
gather from one of the Crystal Palace Cat Show catalogues, that it must
have been after 1597, as the excerpt shows that at that time the shape
and colour was like a leopard's, which, of course, is spotted, and is
always called the spotted leopard. (Since this I have learned that the
domestic cat is said to have been brought from Cyprus by merchants, as
also was the tortoiseshell. Cyprus is a colour, a sort of
reddish-yellow, something like citron; so a Cyprus cat may mean a red or
yellow tabby.)
However, I find Holloway, in his "Dictionary of Provincialisms" (1839),
gives the following:--
"Calimanco Cat, s. (_calimanco_, a _glossy stuff_), a tortoiseshell cat,
Norfolk."
Salmon, in "The Compleat English Physician," 1693, p. 326, writing of
the cat, says: "It is a neat and cleanly creature, often licking itself
to keep it fair and clean, and washing its face with its fore feet; the
best are such as of a fair and large kind and of an exquisite tabby
color called _Cyprus_ cats."
[Illustration:]
[Illustration: SPOTTED TABBY CAT.]
I have thought it best to give two illustrations of the peculiar
markings of the _spotted_ tabby, or leopard cat of some, as showing its
distinctness from the ordinary and banded Tabby, one of my reasons
being that I have, when judging at cat shows, often found excellent
specimens of both entered in the "wrong class," thereby losing all
chance of a prize, though, if rightly entered, either might very
possibly have taken honours. I therefore wish to direct particular
attention to the _spotted_ character of the markings of the variety
called the "spotted tabby." It will be observed that there are no lines,
but what are lines in other tabbies are broken up into a number of
spots, and the more these spots prevail, to the exclusion of _lines_ or
_bands_, the better the specimen is considered to be. The varieties of
the ground colour or tint on which these markings or spots are placed
constitutes the name, such as black-spotted tabby, brown-spotted tabby,
and so on, the red-spotted tabby or yellow-spotted tabby in _she_-cats
being by far the most scarce. These should be marked with _spots_
instead of _bands_, on the same ground colour as the red or
yellow-banded tabby cat. In the former the ground colour should be a
rich red, with spots of a deep, almost chocolate colour, while that of
the yellow tabby may be a deep yellow cream, with yellowish-brown spots.
Both are very scarce, and are extremely pretty. Any admixture of white
is not allowable in the class for yellow or red tabbies; such exhibit
must be put into the class (should there be one, which is usually the
case at large shows) for red or yellow and _white_ tabbies. This
exhibitors will do well to make a note of.
There is a rich-coloured brown tabby hybrid to be seen at the Zoological
Society Gardens in Regent's Park, between the wild cat of Bengal and a
tabby she-cat. It is handsome, but very wild. These hybrids, I am told,
will breed again with tame variety, or with others.
[Illustration]