Editing Manx cat (section)

==History==
===Origin and folklore===
[[File:Manx Silverwing.JPG|thumb|left|Silverwing, a tabby, rumpy Manx male champion show cat (UK, 1902)]]
Tailless cats, then called ''{{lang|gv|stubbin<!--No known reliable source on or in the Manx language capitalises that.-->}}'' (apparently both singular and plural) in colloquial [[Manx language]],<ref name="Cregeen" /><ref name="Kelly" /> were known by the early 19th century as cats from the [[Isle of Man]],<ref name="CFA Breed article">{{cite news|last=Hall|first=Marion|year=1995|title=The Manx Cat|work=Cat Fanciers' Almanac|publisher=Cat Fanciers' Association|location=Alliance, Ohio, US|url=http://www.cfa.org/Client/articlethemanxcat.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121029020442/http://www.cfa.org/Client/articlethemanxcat.aspx|archive-date=29 October 2012}}</ref> hence [[Manx (disambiguation)<!--Yes, this is an intentional link to a disambiguation page.-->|the name]], where they remain a substantial but declining percentage of the local cat population. The taillessness arose as a natural mutation on the island,<ref name="Manx Cat Breed Information, Pictures, Characteristics & Facts">{{cite web  |url=https://cattime.com/cat-breeds/manx-cat#/slide/1 |title= Manx Cat Breed Information, Pictures, Characteristics & Facts. |access-date=5 October 2018}}</ref> though folklore persists that tailless domestic cats were brought there by sea.<ref name="CFA Breed article" /> They are descended from mainland stock of obscure origin.<ref name="Barton" /> Like all house cats, including nearby British and Irish populations, they are ultimately descended from the [[African wildcat]] (''Felis lybica'') and not from native [[European wildcat]]s (''Felis silvestris''),<ref name="Driscoll">{{Cite journal|last1=Driscoll|first1=C. A.|last2=Macdonald|first2=D. W.|last3=O'Brien|first3=S. J.|year=2009|title=In the Light of Evolution III: Two Centuries of Darwin Sackler Colloquium: From Wild Animals to Domestic Pets, An Evolutionary View of Domestication|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|volume=106|issue=S1|pages=9971&ndash;9978|doi=10.1073/pnas.0901586106|pmc=2702791|pmid=19528637|bibcode=2009PNAS..106.9971D|doi-access=free}}</ref> of which the island has long been devoid.<ref name="Kermode" />

The [[Dominance (genetics)|dominant trait]] of taillessness arises from a spontaneous [[mutation]], the Manx taillessness gene, that eventually became common on the island because of the limited [[genetic diversity]] of [[island biogeography]] (an example of the [[founder effect]] and, at {{sic|hide=y|the sub-specific level|reason=This means "below the species level", thus the hyphen, not "the subspecies level"; cat varieties are "subsubspecies", not subspecies.}}, of the [[species-area curve]]).<ref name="cat-world" /><ref name="Robinson" />

In the Manx language, the modern name of the breed is ''{{lang|gv|kayt<!--No known reliable source on or in the Manx language capitalises that word or its variants.--> Manninagh}},'' literally 'cat of Mann' (plural ''{{lang|gv|kiyt}}'' or ''{{lang|gv|kit}}''),<ref name="Cregeen" /><ref name="Kelly" /><ref name="Kneen" /><ref name="Craine">{{cite web |url= http://www.mannin.info/Mannin/fockleyr/m2e.php |title={{sic|hide=y|On-line}} Manx Dictionary |last=Craine |first=J. Ffynlo |work=Mannin.info |location=Ballaugh, I.o.M. |year=2011 |access-date=23 November 2011}}</ref> or ''{{lang|gv|kayt cuttagh}}'' lit. 'bob-tailed cat'.<ref name="Craine" /><ref name="MacBain">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/etymologicaldic00macb |title=An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language |last=MacBain |first=Alexander |publisher=Gairm Pubs. |location=Glasgow, Scotland |edition=Revised |orig-year=1911 |year=1982 |isbn=0-901771-68-6 |url-access=registration }}</ref> ''{{lang|gv|Kayt}}'', used as both a [[Grammatical gender|masculine and feminine]] noun, is also encountered as ''{{lang|gv|cayt}}'',<ref name="Goodwin">{{cite book |first1=Edmund |last1=Goodwin |editor-first=Robert |editor-last=Thomson |title=First Lessons in Manx |edition=Revised |publisher=Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh [Manx Language Society] |location=St. Judes, I.o.M. |date=1987 |page=30}}</ref> and depending on the exact construction, it may be [[Lenition|lenited]] as ''{{lang|gv|chayt}}'' or ''{{lang|gv|gayt}}''.<ref name="Fargher">{{cite book |last1=Fargher|first1=Douglas C. |editor-last1=Stowell|editor-first1=Brian |editor-last2=Faulds|editor-first2=Ian |title=Fargher's English&ndash;Manx Dictionary |date=1979 |publisher=Shearwater Press |location=Douglas |isbn=0-904980-23-5}}</ref>{{rp|138}} The diminutive word is ''{{lang|gv|pishin}}'' or ''{{lang|gv|pishyn}}'', 'kitten' (with various plurals).<ref name="Cregeen" /> ''Manx'' itself was often spelled ''Manks'' in English well into the late 1800s.<ref name="Cregeen" /><ref name="Kermode" />

There are numerous folktales<!--Do not call them "myths" or "legends"; these words are not interchangeable!--> about the Manx cat, all of them of "relatively recent origin";<ref name="Radford" />{{rp|7}} they are focused entirely on the lack of a tail, and are devoid of religious, philosophical, or mythical aspects found in the traditional [[Norse–Gaels|Irish&ndash;Norse]] folklore of the [[History of the Isle of Man|native Manx culture]], and in legends about cats from other parts of the world.<ref name="Radford" />{{rp|7}}

The name of the promontory [[Spanish Head]] on the coast of the island is often thought to have arisen from the local tale of a ship of the [[Spanish Armada]] foundering in the area, though there is no evidence to suggest this actually occurred.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.isleofman.com/heritage/ePedia/Geography/Hills/spanish-head.aspx|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120601204111/http://www.isleofman.com/heritage/ePedia/Geography/Hills/spanish-head.aspx|url-status=dead|title=Isle of Man website page on Spanish Head|archivedate=1 June 2012}}</ref> Folklore has further claimed that a tailless cat swam ashore from said [[shipwreck]], and thus brought the trait to the island.<ref name="Train" /> However, tailless cats are not commonly known in Spain, even if such a shipwreck were proven.{{cn|date=January 2024}}

Regardless of the [[Genetics|genetic]] and historical reality, there are various fanciful [[Lamarckism|Lamarckian]] folktales that seek to explain why the Manx has a truncated tail. In one of them, the biblical [[Noah]] closed the door of [[Noah's Ark|the Ark]] when it began to rain, and accidentally cut off the tail of the Manx cat who had almost been left behind.{{r|MANXGUARDIAN}} Over the years a number of cartoons have appeared on postcards from the [[Isle of Man]] showing scenes in which a cat's tail is being run over and severed by a variety of means including a [[motorcycle]], a reference to motorcycle racing [[Isle of Man TT|being popular on the island]],{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} and an update of the Noah story. Because the gene is so dominant and "invades" other breeds when crossed (often without owner knowledge) with the Manx, there was a folk belief that simply being in the proximity of a Manx cat could cause other breeds to somehow produce tailless kittens.<ref name="Lane" />

Another genetically impossible account claimed that the Manx was the [[Hybrid (biology)|hybrid]] offspring of a cat and a [[rabbit]], purporting to explain why it has no or little tail, long hind legs and a sometimes hopping gait.<ref name="Train" /> The cat-rabbit halfbreed tale has been further reinforced by the more widespread "[[cabbit]]" folktale.

Populations of tailless cats also exist in a few other places in Europe, most notably [[Cornwall]],<ref name="Barton" /> only {{convert|250|mi|km}} from the Isle of Man. A population on the small, isolated [[Denmark|Danish]] peninsula (former island) of [[Reersø]] in the [[Great Belt]] may be due to the arrival on the island of cats of Manx origin, by ship.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.reersoe.dk/e_haleloskat.html|title=HALELØSE KATTE, haleloese, tailless, cats, katzen|website=www.reersoe.dk|access-date=19 January 2019|archive-date=6 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181206234649/http://www.reersoe.dk/e_haleloskat.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Similar cats are also found in [[Crimea]],<ref name="Barton" /> a near-island peninsula in the [[Black Sea]], though whether they are genetically related to maritime Manx cats or are a coincidentally similar result of insular genetic diversity limitations, like the unrelated [[Kuril Islands Bobtail]], [[Karelian Bobtail]], [[Japanese Bobtail]], and Indonesian [[Lombok cat]]s, is unknown. The Manx gene may be related to the similarly dominant tail suppression gene of the recent [[American Bobtail]] breed, but Manx, Japanese Bobtails and other short-tailed cats are not used in its breeding program, and the mutation seems to have appeared in the breed spontaneously.<ref name="catprofile">{{cite web |url= http://animal.discovery.com/breedselector/catprofile.do?id=5010 |title=Cat Breed Profile: American Bobtail |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |work=Animal Planet: Pets, Wild Animals, Dog Breeds, Cat Breeds |publisher=Discovery Communications |access-date=5 November 2006}}</ref> Possible relation to the [[Pixie-bob]] breed, which also ranges from rumpy to fully tailed, is unknown.

===Recognition as a breed===
Manx cats have been exhibited in [[cat show]]s, as a named, distinct breed (and with the modern spelling "Manx"), since the late 1800s. In that era, few shows provided a Manx division, and exhibited specimens were usually entered under the "Any Other Variety" class, where they often could not compete well unless "exceptionally good in size and markings".<ref name="Lane" /> Early pet [[Animal husbandry|breeding]] and [[Show (animal)|showing]] expert [[Charles Henry Lane]], himself the owner of a prize-winning rare white rumpy Manx named Lord Luke, published the first known (albeit informal) [[breed standard]] for the Manx in his 1903 ''Rabbits, Cats and Cavies'',<ref name="Lane" /> but noted that already by the time of his writing "if the judge understood the variety" a Manx would be clearly distinguishable from some other tailless cat being exhibited, "as the make of the animal, its movements and its general character are all distinctive."<ref name="Lane" /> Not all cat experts of the day were favourable toward the breed; in ''The Cat: Its Points and Management in Health and Disease'', Frank Townend Barton wrote in 1908: "There is nothing {{sic|hide=y|whatever}} to recommend the breed, {{sic|hide=y|whilst}} the loss of the tail in no way enhances its beauty."<ref name="Barton" />

The Manx was one of the first breeds recognised by the [[Cat Fanciers' Association]] (CFA) (the predominant United States–based pedigreed cat registry, founded in 1908), which has records on the breed in North America going back to the 1920s.<ref name="Hackett" />