Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/841

 Hi3 WOMAN'S PETS This section of Every Woman's Encyclopedia will prove to be of great interest to women. and will contain practical and authoritative articles on : Prize Do^s Cats : Good and Bad Points Parrots Lap Dogs Cat Fanciers Children's Pets Dogs' Points Small Cage Birds Uncommon Pets Dogs' Clothes Pigeons Food for Pets Sporting Dogs The Diseases of Pets How to Teach Tricks Hozv to Exhibit Dogs Aviaries Gold Fish, etc., etc. WHITE AND IBLACK FERSIAH CATS By FRANCES SIMPSON Jud^e and Expett, Author of " The Rook of the Cat" and " Cats for Pleasure and Profit" The Essential Points of Black Persians — The Care Necessary for the Breed — White Persians and their Points — Blue Eyes and Deafness — Some "Well'known Fanciers ance. New-born kittens, also, are often like balls of brown fluff, and sometimes they do not become a good colour until about six or Dlack Persians have never received the amount of admiration and attention which they deserve. As in other self-coloured cats, the chief point in a black is absolute uniformity of colour. The coat should be glossy, with no bands or bars in the full light. It should have no lighter shade in the undercoat, and, above all, no spot or tuft of white hairs at the throat. This latter is a very common fault amongst black cats. In most black litters, one kitten at least will have this blemish. Apparently, no pre- cautions can prevent or eradicate this fault. A really good speci- men of the black Persian breed must have full round eyes of deep orange — and very attractive are these gleaming orbs, shining forth from their dense black sur- roundings. When black cats are changing their coats they generally present ^.ss Frances Simpson itidging a very rusty appear- PaUce seven months old. a white kitten at the Crystal Show Long-haired blacks, as a class, are not so heavily coated as some other breeds, but they are generally massively built cats, and are very strong and healthy. A tortoiseshell female is a splendid mate for a black male, and some of the most noted blacks in the fancy have been bred in this way. Two brown tabbies will often pro- duce one, if not more, good blacks in a litter. Breeders of silver tab- bies and smokes have found a black cross occasionally very useful and satisfactory, as these two breeds require sometimes to have their markings and colourings intensi- fied. A silver tabby with grey markings, and a smoke vA'On an upper coat of cinder colour, are not true to type, and a black strain introduced will be of