The real tortoise-shell is not
a striped tiger nor a tabby. It has three colors usually, black, yellow,
and red or brown; but these appear in patches rather than stripes. It is
said that the tortoise-shell cat is common in Egypt and the south of
Europe. It comes from a different stock than the ordinary short-haired
cat, the texture of the hair being different, as well as the color. The
tortoise-shell and white cat is much more common, and is the product of
a cross between a tortoise shell and a solid color cat. In this case the
hair is usually coarser and the tail thicker than in the ordinary cat.
Among cat fanciers there is a distinctive variety known as the
tortoise-shell tabby. As the tabby cat is one of the varieties of
striped or spotted cats having markings, broad or narrow, of bands of
black on a dark tan or gray ground, the tortoise-shell cat would have
both stripes and patches of color.
Of the tabbies, there are brown tabbies, silver tabbies, and red
tabbies. It is said that the red tabby she-cat is as scarce as the
tortoise-shell he-cat. The ordinary observer considers the brown tabby
with white markings as much the handsomest of the tabbies. But fanciers
and judges do not agree with him, the cats having narrow bands and spots
being the ones to take prizes. The word "tabby," according to Harrison
Weir, was derived from a kind of taffeta or ribbed silk which used to be
called tabby silk.
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