As regards brown tabbies in America, "King Humbert" and his children have always held their own. "Humbert" was bred in England, and as he is now dead I may be allowed to say that when fit and in good condition a bettercoloured and smarter show cat never stood in a pen or outside, and he loved to show himself off. The best kitten bred from him was "Jasper." He was very short in leg, and quite lost in coat, his feet being hardly visible."

To the readers of that very excellent American publication The Cat Journal the handsome portrait of "Crystal," the brown tabby, is very familiar. The editor, Mr. C. H. Jones, writes thus to me:- "I am sending you some pictures as promised. The large photo is 'Champion Crystal,' son of 'Humbert,

'a beautiful cat as to type and disposition. A peculiar thing about 'Crystal's' kittens is that they do not show very long hair till they are several months old."

And now a few remarks as regards the mating of brown tabbies. I have tried several experiments, but if I were wishing to breed fine specimens I should continue to mate brown tabbies with brown tabbies. Such mating frequently results in a black or two, and these are generally good ones. The orange cross is sometimes successful in introducing a brighter tone, but I confess I have not had very good results from these attempts. I have on several occasions mated blues to my brown tabby stud, and although blue tabbies have appeared in the litters, I have also obtained blues with very grand heads, plenty of bone, and massive build. My famous "Beauty Boy," a well-known winner and sire of bygone days, was bred from " Rajah " (a brown) and "Mater" (a blue). I have been told by silver breeders that a brown tabby cross with chinchillas has often proved advantageous. It might be imagined that the silvers would be tinged with brown or streaked, but I have been assured this is by no means usual, and that the litters consist of good brown tabbies and equally pure silvers.

A well-known breeder of silvers says: - "Although it may be incorrect to cross silvers and browns, it is often most successful. My first torn was a brown tabby with a white chin, and being mated with a silver queen the kittens were good browns and exquisite silvers, and there were lots of winners amongst them.

Many of the silvers were very pure in colour, with lovely markings. My old' Climax,' whose pedigree was pure silver ('Topso' and 'Lady Pink'), was the sire of the noted brown tabby' Birkdale Ruffle.'"

Before closing my article, I would remark that the brown tabby and sable, though often classed together, must not be confounded. The brown tabby is supposed to be the common ancestor of all our cats, and hence the tendency to revert to that colour, as in the case of the blue Rock pigeon. This being the case, surely we should have brown tabby cats more nearly approaching perfection than any other colour. They appear in very unexpected places - in a litter of chinchillas or blacks, or among our oranges, and sometimes where no brown ancestor can be traced. In the brown tabby there seems to be little or no inclination to lose the markings, as in other tabbies ; rather the contrary, for they overdo themselves sometimes, and form into solid black patches, thus causing the dark saddle, which is a serious fault in this breed. Query : Would generations of in-breeding produce a self brown, as with oranges and chinchillas? I rather doubt it, as I think the common ancestor would, so to speak, "chip in" and assert himself.

As regards the sables, I may remark that they are late in maturing and do not acquire their marvellous colouring till about the second year. Anyway, they rarely make a sensation on their first appearance. As I write I am thinking of "Persimmon Laddie," who seems to have developed his glorious copper coat in the course of a year, and when seen at the Crystal Palace show of 1902 was as near perfection in the matter of colouring as could be desired. I hope that in time this breed of Persians may find more admirers, and that with patience and perseverance a really good strain of grand-coloured, dark-chinned, and above all splendidly marked brown tabby cats may be seen at our shows.

In America, as will be seen from the following extract from Field and Fancy, the brownies are making good headway