Tabby cat
A tabby cat, or simply tabby, is any domestic cat (Felis catus) with a distinctive M-shaped marking on their forehead, stripes by their eyes and across their cheeks, along their back, around their legs and tail, and characteristic striped, dotted, lined, flecked, banded, or swirled patterns on the body: neck, shoulders, sides, flanks, chest, and abdomen. The four known distinct patterns, each having a sound genetic explanation, are the mackerel, classic or blotched, ticked, and spotted tabby patterns.
"Tabby" redirects here. For other uses, see Tabby (disambiguation)."Tabby" is not a breed of cat but a coat pattern found in many official cat breeds. It is very common among the general population of mixed-breed cats around the world.[1] The tabby pattern occurs naturally and is connected both to the coat of the domestic cat's direct ancestor and to those of their close relatives: the African wildcat (Felis lybica lybica), the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) and the Asiatic wildcat (Felis lybica ornata), all of which have similar coats, both by pattern and coloration. One genetic study of domestic cats found at least five founders.[2][3]
Orange tabby cat
Black mackerel tabby cat
Orange-blotched tabby-and-white cat
Black tortoiseshell mackerel tabby-and-white tricolor ("caliby") cat
History[edit]
Since the tabby pattern is a common wild type, it might be assumed that medieval cats were tabbies. However, one writer believed this to be untrue, at least in England. Sometime after the mid-17th century, the natural philosopher John Aubrey noted that William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury was "a great lover of Cats" and "was presented with some Cyprus-cats, i.e. our Tabby-Cats". He then claimed that "I doe well remember that the common English Catt, was white with some blueish piednesse [i.e. with grey parts]. The race or breed of them is now almost lost."[20] However, most drawings or paintings of cats in medieval manuscripts do show them to be tabbies.[21]
Due to the pattern being expressed by both pure and mixed-breed cats, a large number of famous cats fall into the "tabby" category. A few of the most notable examples include:
