The long-haired white is a most lovely variety, if kept clean and in good condition; then, with a round head and deep blue eyes, its beauty is hard to surpass. The eyes in this variety make or mar the cat; they should be either deep blue or dark orange, any pale yellow or green tinge being incorrect and very objectionable.

The whites imported from India are vastly superior to the ordinary Persian, their chief characteristics being a long, trailing coat, snub face, short thick legs, beautifully tufted ears and toes, and, of course, cobby in shape. The few specimens which I have seen are not strong in physique, and they give one the impression of being rather too much inbred, which naturally reduces the size but improves the quality.

These cats are very valuable for show or breeding purposes, especially to cross with large, strong cats which lack quality.

The type of white cat usually seen has a shorter and more woolly coat, is longer in all its proportions, and the nose is not as snubby as it should be. This type of cat, however, makes a very good cross with the better bred specimens, as it produces size and strength, added to the quality of the smaller cat.

There are in this country a number of white, long-haired cats, and they seem in many cases to have been kept pure as to colour; these American-bred specimens make a very good cross with the highly pedigreed imported white.

In breeding whites, it is a great mistake to mate blue-eyed cats to other blue-eyed ones for several generations, as the eye-colouring deteriorates, becoming very pale, sometimes almost white. In such cases, either cross with an orange-eyed or odd-eyed white, preferably bred from blue-eyed stock.

The first mating of the two same cats always produces the best eye-colouring in the kittens; therefore, when you see a marked deterioration in this point, you must send your queen to another male.

This I observed in kittens from two odd-eyed cats I possessed; each was blue-eyed bred, the sire's parents were both blue-eyed, and the dam's sire was also blue-eyed; but the maternal grand-parent was an orange-eyed blue.

In the first litters from these cats there were usually two orange-eyed kittens, and two with very deep blue eyes; the kittens were never blue in colour, although on one side they were bred from blues for generations.

The number of blue-eyed kittens differed almost always with every litter, and I always obtained more blue-eyed kittens in the second litter of the year. In one autumn litter I had as many as four blue-eyed and one odd-eyed from these two odd-eyed cats.

I bred from these two cats for years, but the eye-colouring, although very good, latterly was not so deep as in the first two litters.

Crossing orange-eyed and odd-eyed whites with blue-eyed ones has a wonderful effect in producing deep blue eyes. I once saw a cat from such a cross with eyes of deep royal blue; the said cat was also a marvellous shape, but alas, it died after the first time shown.

The orange-eyed variety is, if the eyes are really a deep colour, almost as pretty as blue-eyed ones, and is, as I have already stated, very valuable to breed from.

Many whites are deaf, more especially the blue-eyed ones. This to the novice may seem very terrible, but they make lovely show cats, and good travellers. This blemish does not count against them on the show bench, and in many cases they make lovely pets, though some are excessivelv stupid. The greater number show exceptional intelligence; so much so, that no one would detect the deafness unless told of it.

One of my greatest pets was a deaf white kitten, and whenever I entered the room he ran with a merry cry to meet me. I always talked to him like any other kitten, and he seemed to fully appreciate it. All his cleverness must have been in a keen sense of feeling and smell. I have found many others just as nice; one, which I disposed of lately for a pet, went to a home where there were large dogs, and I have since heard that he is not afraid of anything, and sleeps curled up with the dogs.

So it will be seen that deaf cats are not so marred by this affliction as dogs and other animals would be. White cats should, if possible, only be mated with whites, but a blue, bred from blues, has proved a very valuable cross in many cases, and one I would always resort to in order to obtain strength and depth of eye-colouring. If there is any colour-breeding in your whites pedigree on either side, some of the white kittens will come with blue-black or light grey smudges on the tops of their heads; this in nearly every case disappears when the kitten is full grown, sometimes not until they get their second coats at eighteen months or two years. Should this mark be very large - say about the size of a fifty-cent piece and very dense in colour - it is pretty sure to stay, and ruin the cat for exhibition purposes.