The gene responsible for the coloring of a classic tabby is recessive. The legs, tail, and cheeks of a classic tabby have thick stripes, bands, and/or bars. Classic tabbies each have a light-colored 'butterfly' pattern on the shoulders and three thin stripes (the center stripe being the darkest) running along the spine. Black tabbies generally have dark browns, olives, and ochres that stand out more against their black colors. 80% of modern-day cats have the recessive allele responsible for the classic pattern. The classic tabby, also known as blotched tabby, has the 'M' pattern on the forehead but, rather than primarily thin stripes or spots, the body markings are thick curving bands in whorls or a swirled pattern, with a distinctive mark on each side of the body resembling a bullseye. 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.

Patterns Typical tabby patterns in the head region: An 'M' on the forehead, bright eye rims and borders of the ears 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. 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. This can be further traced to the Middle French atabis (14th century), which stemmed from the Arabic term عتابية / ʿattābiyya. The English term tabby originally referred to 'striped silk taffeta', from the French word tabis, meaning 'a rich watered silk'. 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. 'Tabby' is not a breed of cat, but a coat pattern found in many official cat breeds, and is very common among the general population of mixed-breed cats around the world. It is thought that the tabby pattern originates from the numerous related species of wildcat.Ī tabby cat, or simply 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 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).

Long haired orange tabby cat