_Points_.--1. _Size_: You don't look for a very large cat of the pure tortoiseshell breed, nor a very pretty one. The larger the better to a certain extent. I have known a small-sized tortoiseshell cat follow the rats even into their own burrows, again and again, until she had exterminated them. 2. _Head_: The head is small and rather bullety, the ears moderately large and nicely cocked, and the eyes small, and the darker the better. 3. _Colour and markings_: The colour is as near tortoiseshell as possible, and the markings must not only be deep and pretty, but very distinct in the centre, although blending insensibly where they meet, and artistically arranged. You mustn't expect to find the colour or markings very nicely arranged on the male tortoiseshell. No white is allowed on this breed of cat. Tortoiseshell Tom _is_ tortoiseshell Tom, and prefers to be judged alone and on his own merits; for, as a rule, his right there is none to dispute. 4. _Pelage_ or _Coat_: Hair moderately short, but _very_ fine, glossy, and silken. N.B.--Knock off from five to eight points for _cinder-holes_. I now give the points in a tabular form, with their full value. Not, remember, that as a rule I go in for judging by points; still, a table of this sort has its value, as one can see just at a glance what is looked for in each breed, and what isn't:-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Points of the Tortoiseshell Cat. 1. Size, 5. 2. Head, 10. 3. Colour and markings, 25. 4. Pelage, 10. Total, 50. The next pussy which demands a few passing remarks is _The Tortoiseshell-and-white_. This is often a very beautiful cat, more especially when young, as, when old, they sometimes degenerate into very lazy habits, especially if they have a large amount of white about them. They are pretty, and they seem to know it, taking great delight in keeping the white portions of their fur as pure as snow. I knew a cat something of this breed, who was nearly all white, excepting a beautiful tortoiseshell patch on the upper part of one thigh. She was unexceptionably cleanly, and the frantic efforts she used to make to wash off that spot of black-and-amber were ridiculous to behold. She would sit for hours admiring herself in the glass, and occasionally dipping her paw in her saucer of milk, until she spied that unhappy spot; to that she would at once devote a good half-hour, but finding no appreciable difference in it, she would start away in high dudgeon, swishing her tail about, like a lion in love. That spot was the only barrier to pussy's bliss. _Moral_: There's no such thing as perfect happiness here below--even to a cat. CHAPTER FOUR. THE BLACK CAT. Next on the list of classification comes the _Black Cat_, subdivided into--1, the Pure Black; and 2, the Black-and-white.