Tortoiseshells

I place these first on the list because, being an old pigeon fancier and

somewhat of a florist, I deem these to be the breed wherein there is the

most art and skill required to produce properly all the varied mottled

beauty of bright colours that a cat of this breed should possess; and

those who have bred tortoiseshells well know how difficult a task it is.



In breeding for this splendid, gorgeous, and diversified arra gement of

colouring, a black, or even a blue, may be used with a yellow or red

tabby female, or a white male, supposing either or both were the

offspring of a tortoiseshell mother. The same males might be used with

advantage with a tortoiseshell female. This is on the theory of whole

colours, and patches or portions of whole colours, without bars or

markings when possible. In the same way some of the best almond tumbler

pigeons are bred from an almond cock mated to a yellow hen. The

difficulty here, until lately, has been to breed hens of the varied

mottling on almond colour, the hen almost invariably coming nearly, if

not quite yellow--so much so that forty to fifty years ago a yellow hen

was considered as a pair to an almond cock, in the same way as the red

tabby male is now regarded in respect to the tortoiseshell female; and

it was not until at Birmingham, many years ago, when acting as judge, I

refused to award prizes to them as such, that the effort was made, and a

successful one, to breed almond-coloured hens with the same plumage as

the cock--that is, the three colours. With cats the matter is entirely

different, it being the male at present that is the difficulty, if a

real difficulty it may be called.



Mr. Herbert Young, a most excellent cat fancier and authority on the

subject, is of opinion that if a tortoiseshell male cat could be found,

it would not prove fertile with a tortoiseshell female. But of this I am

very doubtful, because, if the red and the yellow tabby is so, which is

decidedly a weaker colour, I do not see how it can possess more vitality

than a cat marked with the three colours; in fact the latter ought, in

reality, to be more prolific, having black as one of the colours, which

is a strong colour, blue being only the weak substitute, or with white

combined. A whole black is one of the strongest colours and most

powerful of cats.



Reverting once again to the pigeon fancier by way of analogy, take, as

an instance, what is termed the silver-coloured pigeon, or the yellow.

These two, and duns, are, by loss of certain pigments, differently

coloured and constituted (like the tortoiseshell among cats) from other

varieties of pigeons of harder colours, such as blues, and blacks, or

even reds. For a long time silver turbit cock pigeons were so scarce

that, until I bred some myself, I had never seen such a thing; yet hens

were common enough, and got from silver and blues. In the nestling

before the feathers come, the young of these colours are without down,

and are thus thought to be, and doubtless are, a weakly breed; yet there

is no absolute diminution of strength, beyond that of colour, when

silver is matched to silver; but dun with dun, these last go lower in

the scale, losing the black tint, and not unfrequently the colour is

yellow; or, matched with black, breed true blacks. I am, therefore, of

opinion that a tortoiseshell male and female would, and should, produce

the best of tortoiseshells, both male and female.



It not unfrequently happens that from a tortoiseshell mother, in the

litter of kittens there are male blacks and clear whites, and I have

known of one case when a good blue and one where the mixed colours were

blue, light red, and light yellow were produced, while the sisters in

the litter were of the usual pure tortoiseshell markings. In such cases,

generally, the latter only are kept, unless it is the blue, the others

being too often destroyed. My own plan would be to breed from such black

or white males, and if not successful in the first attempt, to breed

again in the same way with the young obtained with such cross; and I

have but little doubt that, by so doing, the result so long sought after

would be achieved. At least, I deem it far more likely to be so than the

present plan of using the red tabby as the male, which are easily

produced, though very few are of high excellence in richness of ground

tints.