THESE quaint cats are rapidly and surely coming into notice in the fancy. As a breed they are intelligent and affectionate, and, I believe, splendid sporting cats. They are undoubtedly great favourites amongst the sterner sex, perhaps because they are such keen and plucky ratters. As a breeder of Persian cats, and having become used to the beautiful wide-spreading tails of these cats, I confess there is something grotesque and unfinished, to my eyes, in the Manx, and from choice I should not care to keep these tailless pussies as pets. They do not appeal to me and to my sense of the beautiful. Having, therefore, never kept or bred Manx cats, I feel diffident in writing about them; but I have carefully studied those exhibited, and have also had opportunities of judging of their points whilst visiting friends who have fallen victims to the fascinations of these curious felines. I know a good Manx when I see one, and to prove this assertion I will tell an incident in connection with a prize-winning Manx of to-day. A friend of mine living in London took compassion on a little stray black kitten who came crying for food. She fed him, and repeatedly tried to find poor pussy's owner, but in vain.

Rascals (From a Painting by Madame Henriette Ronner.)

I was appealed to to know what had better be done, and when I saw the little black fellow I strongly recommended my friend to keep it and exhibit it at the next large show, as I considered he would go in and win easily. She followed my advice in the latter respect, but placed too low a figure on " Nig," as she declared she did not wish to go in for Manx. I warned her he would be sold, and sure enough that clever and astute judge of cats of uncommon breeds, Mrs. H. C. Brooke, snapped him up at catalogue price; and since then he has blossomed forth into a champion, and as "King Clinkie" has taken highest honours whenever shown. It is only just to state that Mrs. Brooke most generously handed over some of her winnings to " King Clinkie's " former owner.

Type Of Manx Kitten {Photo: Russell & Sons, Windsor.)

I will therefore proceed to give my opinion of Manx cats, but with all due deference to my fellow fanciers who have had personal experience with the breed. I think I have judged every species of cat, long- and short-haired, except Manx; but if I were given a class of this breed upon which to adjudicate, I should first closely examine their tails, or, to be more correct, the place where the tails ought not to be ! I remember in former times stump-tailed cats, called Manx, used to win comfortably at shows, but in our up-to-date times I should make a black mark in my judging book against those cats with a stump or an appendage, or even a mere excrescence. I do not fear contradiction when I state that a Manx cat of the true type should have no particle of tail - only a tuft of hair, which ought to be boneless.

The next point for which I should search would be the length of hind quarters, which lends such great individuality to this breed of cat. No doubt the lack of tail in itself makes a cat's hind legs look long, but we want more than that; we need a very short back, so that from the point of the quarters to the hocks there is a continuous and decided outward slope. In fact, the hind legs stand right back from the body, like a well-trained hackney's in the show ring. Coat I should next consider, as this differs, or should differ, considerably from both the long- and short-haired breeds. It should bear more resemblance to the fur of a rabbit, being longer and softer than that of our common or garden cats. I think a good-shaped round head as desirable in a Manx as in other breeds. As regards colour, the most common would seem to be tabbies, either silver, brown, or orange, and often there is a mixture of white. Self-coloured Manx seem to be much rarer, and Harrison Weir tells us he does not recollect having seen a white Manx.

As regards the colour of eyes in Manx cats, it is the custom to say that they do not matter in this breed; but, nevertheless, a cat that has the correct colour of eye must necessarily beat an animal that has just the opposite to what is set forth in the standard for short-haired English cats.

A lady friend of mine, who was brought up in the Isle of Man, has told me that she always understood that Manx cats came from a cross with a rabbit, but if this supposition is correct it seems too strange to be true that cats and rabbits should only form matrimonial alliances in the little island off our coast ! It would appear more probable, therefore, that a foreign breed of cat was brought to the island, and the following article from the pen of Mr. Gambier Bolton gives his ideas on the subject : " In the Isle of Man to-day we find a rock named the Spanish Rock, which stands close into the shore, and tradition states that here one of the vessels of the Spanish Armada went down in the memorable year 1558, and that among the rescued were some tailless cats which had been procured during one of the vessel's voyages to the Far East. The cats first swam to the rock, and then made their way to the shore at low tide; and from these have sprung all the so-called Manx cats which are now to be found in many parts of Great Britain, Europe, and America.

"Golfsticks." Owned by Miss Samuels. (Photo: Albert Hester, Clapton, N.E.)

"The tale seems a bit' tall,' and yet the writer feels so satisfied of its truth that he would welcome any change in the name of this peculiar variety of the domestic cat to sweep away the idea that they sprang from the Isle of Man originally.