Tortoise-shells are peculiar in colouring, resembling a piece of tortoise-shell; their colour consists of black, orange and cream patches, these should be irregular in shape, but distinct in colouring, the more distinct and deeper in colour the better, the head, ears, tail, and legs should also be patched, with no trace of tabby markings visible.

The eyes should be orange or golden.

Perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of this colour is there being few kittens of the male sex; I have never seen one of the long-haired variety and only one or two among the short-hairs; this makes them a somewhat difficult colour to breed.

The cross of black and orange makes tortoise-shell, and tortoise-shell females should be mated to orange or black males, black if the queen shows too much orange, and orange if the queen be too dark.

Keep as much tortoise-shell in the pedigree as possible, by mating your tortoise-shell females to males bred from a tortoise-shell dam; in this way you are able to get more good-coloured ones.

Do not introduce any tabby varieties unless you are obliged.

A cream cat also makes a good cross if bred from oranges.