Sir, - Being much interested in the breeding of creams, I should like to say a few words on the subject and state my experience. Though only a novice, I have up to date succeeded in breeding twenty creams - two in 1899, thirteen in 1900, and seven this year. I began by mating my mixed blue and cream queen "Senga" to a cream torn "D'Arcy," which I bought from Mr. Hutchinson, of Egglestone. From this pair I got four kittens, all females - two cream and two marked blues. I kept the creams "Josephine" and "Hazeline," winners at Westminster as kittens, first and second special and medal, 1900. Later on in the year I mated them, "Hazeline" to Miss Beal's "Midshipmite," "Josephine" to her "Admiral." Both litters were entirely cream, "Josephine" producing six kittens, "Hazeline" producing five, two of which I have kept. "Matthew" and "Miriam of the Durhams" both won as kittens at Manchester, and "Miriam has since taken first and specials at Barnard Castle, Westminster, and Reading. "Matthew" is growing into a very handsome cat, and I hope to exhibit him at the Botanic. On Saturday last, April 13th, "Hazeline" again kittened and produced five creams, having again been mated to "Midshipmite." This I think distinctly proves that good creams can be got from a pair of the same colour.

On April 14th "Senga" also presented me with two more creams, also two marked blues, this time the result of a mating with Miss Beale's "Romaldkirk Toza."

Mrs. D'Arcy Hildyard's Cream Kittens (Photo: E. Yeoman, Barnard Castle.)

Agnes D'Arcy Hildyard.

Mrs. Barton Collier has two good creams, "Brum" and "Dolly of Brough." Again these cats are from Miss Beal's strain, the male being a fawn and the female quite one of the palest of creams.

Miss H. Cochran, who formerly took a great interest in this breed, writes : - " I should be inclined to mate a pale cream male or female with a white, and the progeny with an unmarked orange, or vice versa. I had a litter from' Buttercup' and' Zoroaster,' consisting of two oranges, two fawns, and a cream. The fawn and creams were females, but all died in their youth. I made other attempts with similar crosses, as I had been told it was impossible to breed cream queens, and in the first year all the creams were queens, and the males red ! My idea was to select a male of the required colour, and mate a queen of suitable breeding with him, then to mate the resulting queens with their own father. I believe this plan would have been a success if I had followed it up. My idea is that the natural males are the fawns and oranges, and that their complementary queens are the blue tortoiseshells and the ordinary tortoiseshells. No harm is ever done to a cream or orange strain by crossing with black, and it may do much good to the latter by deepening the colour of the oranges, and promoting patchiness as opposed to streakiness in the tortoiseshells."

"Miriam Of The Durhams." (Photo: E. Yeoman, Barnard Castle.)

I have made frequent mention of Miss Beal's noted creams during my chapters on orange and cream cats. These two celebrated champions are commonly known in the fancy as the " Heavenly Twins," their registered names being "Romaldkirk Admiral" and "Romaldkirk Midshipmite." They are really fawn Persian cats, very sound in colour, well made, big boned, and are always exhibited in the pink of condition, and at all seasons of the year are in marvellous coat. Certainly, the cold climate of the Romaldkirk cattery, which is situated 730 feet above the sea level, must, anyhow, suit this variety of Persian cat. I suppose the day will come when these welltried and well-seasoned veterans will have to retire from public life and make way for some of their already noted offspring. In the North, South, East, and West these " Heavenly Twins" have reigned supreme, and Miss Beal must almost have lost count of the number of prizes won by them, which, I think I am safe in saying, would give an exact record of the number of times exhibited. In response to my request, Miss Beal has sent me some notes regarding her cattery arrangements, She says : "Most of the houses are old farm buildings round about our stable yard, and I have recently utilised an old granary which is over the coachhouse.

This is about 40 feet long, and has a room at one end, with five windows and good ventilation above. In addition I have three big cat houses and a loft, where most of the queens reside. 'Middy' and 'Admiral' (the 'Heavenly Twins') have small wooden houses, felted inside and out, with wired runs and concrete floors.

"I have the use of two laundries and a tool-house fitted with fireplaces, and these I reserve in case of illness."

There are no cats exhibited in better coat and condition than those that come from the Romaldkirk cattery, and the Misses Beal may be justly proud of their splendid specimens of creams, oranges, tortoiseshells, and blue Persians. Miss W. Beal has kindly supplied me with a short article on cream and fawn Persians : "The cream and fawn Persian was a few years ago looked upon as a 'sport,' and when cream kittens appeared in an orange strain they were considered spoilt oranges, and were either given away, sold for a few shillings, or in many cases destroyed as useless. Now, however, it is very different; there is a growing demand for cats and kittens of this colour, and at the big shows they usually have two classes, i.e. male and female, for them. They were certainly slow in coming into general favour, owing, I think, to the following facts : First, that the specimens formerly exhibited failed very noticeably in head, being very narrow in face and long in nose ; secondly, that cream females were practically unknown; and, thirdly, that a show, where they are generally seen, is emphatically the worst place to see cream Persians to advantage, as the journey and being in a town, etc., takes off the spotlessness of their coat and dulls their colour, and the dingy grey of the pens and the yellow of the straw combine to spoil the effect of their colour.

"The place, without doubt, to see creams to perfection is the country, where against a background of vivid green lawn then-pure, soft colouring is indeed a thing of beauty, and rarely fails to command admiration. The colour is rather difficult to describe, and there are two distinct tones of colour bred, the one which is generally seen and is so far most successful at shows being a cream rather deep in shade, almost buff, with a distinct pink tinge about it, which is very different from the washed-out orange or sandy colour some people imagine it to be. The other tone of cream colour is much paler in shade, but, instead of the pink, it inclines to a lemon tinge, and, though paler, it is, as a rule, more' flaky' and uneven than the darker shades, and it is also very apt to fade into white underneath.

"Nearly all the best-known creams are bred in the first place from orange and blue strains, though creams have appeared as freaks in many colours - silvers, tabbies, etc.; but I believe the present strains sprang from crossing blue and orange, and you can generally rely on getting some creams by crossing a tortoise-shell, cream, orange, or blue tortoiseshell queen with a blue sire. But, so far, reversing the mating, i.e. a blue queen with a cream or orange sire, is not successful from the cream breeders' point of view, though very good from that of those breeders who want blues, as the kittens generally excel in purity of colour. Cream females are now fairly common, and so in a few years there ought to be a well-established strain of cream-bred creams ; but, as in all other breeding for colour, people are apt to get surprises - for instance, one strain of cream females mated to a cream sire invariably produces whole litters of creams, while another strain, more cream-bred than the first named, mated to the same sire produces equal numbers of creams and orange-and-creams. If people wish to start breeding creams, and cannot afford a cream female, it is a good plan to buy a well-bred nondescript coloured female, either blue-and-cream, tabby, tortoiseshell, or anything that has cream or orange about it, and if it is properly mated there are nearly sure to be one or two creams : thus a cream strain can be gradually built up.

"Champion Romai.DK1KK Admiral." (Photo: G. W. Vidals.)

"There are several things to be remembered in trying to breed good creams. One point to be aimed at is to keep the colour as level as possible, whether it be of a dark or light shade, and to keep it pure, not tinged with blue or dull. Among other faults to be bred out are the light lip and chin, which are very common defects, and the long head, which is still seen sometimes, though creams have improved vastly in this respect in the last few years. Creams have been taken up greatly in America as well as oranges, and there they seem to be formidable rivals in popularity to the silvers, which have so far over here outdone them in that respect. " One great point in favour of creams is their hardiness, for they do not possess the delicate constitutions which seem to belong to most of the other very pale varieties of Persians. With other coloured cats - blues, silvers, etc. - creams make a splendid contrast, and with oranges add greatly to the effect of a group. They also cross well with several colours - blue, black, tortoiseshell, etc. - for breeding; and many breeders think the result of the growing fancy for these colours, i.e. cream and orange - for, though so different, they are hard to deal with separately - will be that they will be better catered for at shows as to classes, and more extensively bred than they are at present."

Mrs. F. Western's "Matthew Of The Durham's." (Photo: E. Yeoman, Barnard Castle.)