A CAT SHOW.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5562, 25 January 1879, Page 3

A CAT SHOW.

Por the information of the curious the following account of a cat show is reprinted from the Times’. —“The tenth national cat show commenced yesterday at the Crystal Palace, and will remain open until to-morrow evening. Theie are many persons, and particularly those whose lot it is to retire with each evening from the worry and turmoil of city life to the Sylvan shades of Clapton or Clapham, who do not regard the successful breeding of the fdidas from a favorable point of view ; but there are also many others who see no reason why, if articles of production as dissimilar as babies, bicycles, barmaids, and ploughshares are to be submitted for public competition for prices, their pet grimalkins should not also be allowed now and then to enter the lists of peaceful warfare and receive the rewards of feline merit. At the Crystal Palace the experiment has endured through a decade and with encouraging success. There are now ranged in four lines of miniature tigers’ dens at Sydenham no less than 223 cats of both sexes. These specimens of the race are divided into 49 clases, and on the whole, the show presents features proving that much, and Indeed grow-

ing, interest is felt in the breeding of cats. It may be mentioned in passing, as an evidence of this interest, that Mr. Wolf, who is well known in connection with the careful and intelligent study of natural history, is now completing a monograph of this felidce, in which he has the editorial assistance of Mr. G. D. Elliott, a gentleman equally competent to deal with this branch of the study of animated nature. No one will, of course, be disposed to attach the same amount of importance to the breeding of cats that belongs to the production of stout St. Bernards, useful sheep dogs, keen-scented pointers, setters, or foxhounds, swift and far-sighted hunters of “ poor puss,” or even of the humbler breeds of dogs which, if they do not guard our houses, give timely warning of the area sneak’s approach or the absolute arrival of the midnight burglar ; but there are not many among us but possess a sneaking regard for the puss that purrs beside the evening fire, and would encourage by means of such shows as this a kindly treatment of it. Either by accident or design, a trio, or perhaps more, of the most famous cats iu the country were excluded from competition ; the class for tortoise-shell Toms being confined to animals possessing a soupgon of white fur among the other colors which go to make the tortoise-shell combination. Probably amateurs will agree iu thinking that the best class in the show are those devoted to white mousers with long hair. Should opinions differ as to the bulk, there can be no doubt that the best individual cat iu the show is Miss Weightman’s Angora “ Mistletoe,” which iu the course of eight years has won twentyeight first and seven special prizes. The heaviest short-haired cat iu the list is Mrs. Jane Bath’s “ Tabby,” a seven years old animal, which scales 16flb. He does not come up to “Royal Tom,” who caused the scale to kick the beam at 22Jlb. when shown in Edinburgh a few years ago, but is still a very respectable member of feline society, and “Royal Tom” having “passed to where beyond these voices there is peace”—is, perhaps, as heavy a cat as could reasonably be expected to put in a claim for honors even in a national show. .