Silver tabbies are at present very rare - that is to say, good specimens; and it is quite time more fanciers turned their attention to this variety. Silver tabbies are very much admired, but to breed good ones they must be kept well apart from the other silver varieties, as, when crossed with chinchillas, shaded silvers, or smokes, the clear markings, which are their chief characteristic, are spoilt; but if you have no suitable mate for a silver tabby, it is wiser to cross with a silver than a brown or blue, as the latter crosses make the resulting kittens useless for breeding purposes.

A silver tabby must have clear wide black tabby markings on a pale silver ground colour, the markings being as distinct as possible from the ground colour; any blurring or ticking of the markings is a great drawback; the colour should be free from any cream or brown tint.

The eyes may be hazel or green.

The kittens when born are rather difficult to select, as in all long-haired varieties they lighten with age, therefore the kitten one would select as being nearly perfect, will when full grown be liable to become much too light in colour. Therefore I would advise selecting the darkest and strongest marked ones; if not properly marked on the back, these markings are liable to appear with the second coat. The heads should also be darkly striped; they must not have too light faces, or later on the markings will fade out almost entirely.

If your cat be well marked, but too light, a black makes a desirable cross; if bred from silvers or smokes, one too heavily marked might do well mated to a chinchilla or pale silver tabby, but it is best to mate a silver tabby to one of its own kind if possible.

Never introduce blue, brown or orange.