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Mating


Yet nature is made better by no mean,

But nature makes that mean: so, o'er that art,

Which, you say, adds to nature, is an art

That nature makes.



Coriolanus, Act II. Scene I.



This requires much and careful consideration, and in this, as well as in

many other things, experience and theory join hands, while the knowledge

of the natur
list and fancier is of great and superlative value; yet,

with all combined, anything like certainty can never be assured,

although the possession of pedigree is added, and the different

properties of food, health, quality, and breed understood and taken into

account. Still, much may be gained by continued observation and close

study of the peculiar properties of colour, besides that of form. If,

for instance, a really, absolutely blue cat, without a shade of any

other colour, were obtainable, and likewise a pure, clear, canary

yellow, there is little doubt that at a distant period, a green would be

the ultimate goal of success. But the yellow tabby is not a yellow, nor

the blue a blue. There being, then, only a certain variety of colours in

cats, the tints to be gained are limited entirely to a certain set of

such colours, and the numerous shades and half-shades of these mixed,

broken, or not, into tints, markings light or dark, as desired. To all

colour arrangements, if I may so call them, by the mind, intellect, or

hand of man, there is a limit, beyond which none can go. It is thus far

and no further.



There is the black cat, and the white; and between these are intervening

shades, from very light, or white-gray, to darker, blue, dark blue,

blackish blue, gray and black. If a blue-black is used, the lighter

colours are of one tint; if a brown-black, they are another.



Then in what are termed the sandies and browns, it commences with the

yellow-white tint scarcely visible apart from white to the uninitiated

eye; then darker and darker, until it culminates in deep brown, with the

intervening yellows, reds, chestnuts, mahoganys, and such colours, which

generally are striped with a darker colour of nearly their own shade,

until growing denser, it ends in brown-black.



The gray tabby has a ground colour of gray. In this there are the

various shades from little or no markings, leaving the colour a brown or

gray, or the gray gradually disappearing before the advance of the black

in broader and broader bands, until the first is excluded and black is

the result.



The tortoiseshell is a mixture of colours in patches, and is certainly

an exhibition of what may be done by careful selection, mating, and

crossing of an animal while under the control of man, in a state of

thorough domestication. What the almond tumbler is to the pigeon

fancier, so is the tortoiseshell cat to the cat fancier, or the bizarre

tulip to the florist. As regards colour, it is a triumph of art over

nature, by the means of skilful, careful mating, continued with

unwearying patience. We get the same combination of colour in the

guinea-pig, both male and female, and therefore this is in part a proof

that by proper mating, eventually a tortoiseshell male cat should soon

be by no means a rarity. There are rules, which, if strictly followed

under favourable conditions, ought to produce certain properties, such

properties that may be desired, either by foolish (which generally it

is) fashion, or the production of absolute beauty of form, markings in

colours, or other brilliant effects, and which the true fanciers

endeavour to obtain. It is to this latter I shall address my remarks,

rather than to the reproduction of the curious, the inelegant, or the

deformed, such as an undesirable number of toes, which are impediments

to utility.



In the first place, the fancier must thoroughly make up his mind as to

the variety of form, colour, association of colours or markings by

which he wishes to produce, if possible, perfection; and, having done

so, he must provide himself with such stock as, on being mated, are

likely to bring such progeny as will enable him in due time to attain

the end he has in view. This being gained, he must also prepare himself

for many disappointments, which are the more likely to accrue from the

reason that, in all probability, he starts without any knowledge of the

ancestry or pedigree of the animals with which he begins his operations.

Therefore, for this reason, he has to gain his knowledge of any aptitude

for divergence from the ordinary or the common they may exhibit, or

which his practical experience discovers, and thus, as it were, build up

a family with certain points and qualities before he can actually embark

in the real business of accurately matching and crossing so as to

produce the results which, by a will, undeviating perseverance, and

patience, he is hoping to gain eventually--the perfection he so long,

ardently, and anxiously seeks to acquire; but he must bear in mind that

that, on which he sets his mark, though high, must come within the

limits and compass of that which is attainable, for it is not the

slightest use to attempt that which is not within the charmed circle of

possibilities.



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