Mackerels are the most common among tabbies. Mackerel tabbies are also called 'fishbone tabbies,' probably doubly named after the mackerel fish. Three or five vertical lines in an 'M' shape almost always appear on the forehead, along with dark lines from the corners of the eyes, one or more crossing each cheek, and of course many stripes and lines at various angles on the neck and shoulder area, on the flanks, and around the legs and tail, marks which are more or less perpendicular to the length of the body part.
These stripes can be continuous or broken into bars and short segments/spots, especially on the flanks and stomach. The mackerel, or striped, tabby pattern is made up of thin vertical, gently curving stripes on the sides of the body. Some of these rarer patterns are because of the interaction of wild and domestic genes, as with the rosette and marbled patterns found in the Bengal breed. For example, a modified classic tabby is found in the Sokoke breed. Several additional patterns are found in specific breeds and so are not as well known. Īll five patterns have been observed in random-bred populations. A patched tabby is a cat with calico or tortoiseshell markings combined with patches of tabby coat (such cats are called caliby and torbie, respectively, in cat fancy). Prototypical tabby patterns in the head region: An 'M' on the forehead, bright eye rims and borders of the earsĪ fifth pattern is formed by any of the four basic patterns being included as part of a patched pattern. The four known distinct patterns, each having a sound genetic explanation, are the mackerel, classic, ticked, and spotted tabby patterns. The notion that tabby indicates a female cat may be due to the feminine proper name Tabby as a nickname of " Tabitha". Use of the term tabby cat for a cat with a striped coat began in the 1690s and was shortened to tabby in 1774. Tabby is also comparable to the Spanish word ataviar, which means "to decorate or to dress or wear" and often implies luxurious clothing. Such silk cloth became popular in the Muslim world and spread to England, where the word "tabby" became commonly used in the 17th and 18th centuries. This word is a reference to the Attabiya district of Baghdad, noted for its striped cloth and silk itself named after the Umayyad Governor of Mecca Attab ibn Asid. The English term tabby originally referred to "striped silk taffeta," from the French word tabis, meaning "a rich watered silk." This can be further traced to the Middle French atabis (14th century), which stemmed from the Arabic term عتابية / ʿattābiyya. Etymology A 19th-century drawing of a tabby cat One genetic study of domestic cats found at least five founders. 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. The tabby pattern is found in many official cat breeds and is a hallmark of the landrace extremely common among the general population of cats around the world. "Tabby" is not a breed of cat, but a coat type seen in almost all genetic lines of domestic cats, regardless of breed. It is thought that the tabby pattern originates from the numerous related species of wildcat.Ī tabby is any domestic cat ( Felis catus) with a distinctive 'M'-shaped marking on its forehead stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, along its back, and around its legs and tail and (differing by tabby type), characteristic striped, dotted, lined, flecked, banded, or swirled patterns on the body-neck, shoulders, sides, flanks, chest, and abdomen. Mackerel tabby, with the distinctive striped pattern and forehead 'M' A European wildcat ( Felis silvestris) bearing a similar coat pattern to that of a tabby cat. For other uses, see Tabby (disambiguation).
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