THERE can be no question that a really good silver tabby will carry off the palm even from the most exquisite unmarked silver cat, and in this assertion I feel I have the support of all our professional judges, for with the "mere man," it is well known, the pale silvers do not stand high in favour. Men call them "wishy-washy," insipid, and wanting in expression, and are generally displeased at this sport in the fancy that has spoiled the handsome silver tabbies of years gone by.

"I Want To Go Home." (Photo: E. Landor, Baling.)

No doubt there is just cause for complaint, for the inter-breeding of silvers with silver tabbies has undoubtedly done much to destroy the clear defined markings which in tabby cats is their chief glory. Now, of course, it is easily understood that these tabby markings in a long-haired cat cannot be so distinct as those that appear to such advantage in the short-haired breeds. " The better the coat the weaker the markings," may be said of Persian silver tabbies, and judges have been known to give the highest award to an out-of-coat specimen just because the markings are more evident than in a cat in full pelage. Harrison Weir states that "Tabby is not a Persian colour," and goes on to say, "Nor have I ever seen an imported cat of that colour." His definition of a silver tabby reads thus : - " Markings : Jet-black lines, not too broad, scarcely so wide as the ground colour shown between, so as to give a light and brilliant effect. When the black lines are broader than the colour space, it is a defect, being then black marked with colour, instead of colour with black. The lines must be clear, sharp, and well-defined, in every way distinct, having no mixture of the ground colour.

Head and legs marked regularly, the rings on the throat and chest being in no way blurred or broken, but clear, graceful, and continuous ; lips, cushions of feet, and the backs of hind legs, and the ear points, black." And here it will be interesting to give the discussion which took place and the list of points drawn up at the inaugural meeting of the Silver Society in 1900, and which standard is still adhered to in the present Silver and Smoke Persian Cat Society