SILVER PERSIANS.
Three of Mrs. Champion's celebrated cats.
The Tabby is remarkable to us in that it is characteristic of our own country, and no other colour seems to have been popular until our own times. If you ask any one which breed of cat is the real domestic cat, you will be told the tabby, probably because it is so well known to all. The complexity of the tabby is really remarkable, and for shape and variety of colouring it has no equal in any other tribe of cat. It has comprised in its nature all the really great qualities of the feline, and all its worst attributes. You can truthfully say of one of its specimens that it attaches itself to the individual, while of another in the 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 passing notice of people. You can teach it anything if it is tractable, make it follow like a dog, come to whistle, but it will have its independence.
Photo by E. Landor] [Ealing.
LONG-HAIRED CHINCHILLA.
Note the beautiful "fluffiness" of this cat's fur.
The Sand-coloured Cat, with a whole-coloured coat like the rabbit, which we know as the Abyssinian or Bunny Cat, is a strong African type. On the Gold 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 have both established a new and distinct tribe out of its parentage. The Manx Cat is nearly allied to it, and a hundred years ago the tailless cat was called the Cornwall Cat, not the Manx.
Siam sends us a regal animal in the Siamese Royal Cat; it has a brown face, legs, and tail, a cream-coloured body, and mauve 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.