Coat Patterns
There are four different patterns of tabbies: mackerel, classic, spotted and ticked. Closely resembling a tiger, the mackerel tabby has narrow parallel stripes running down the sides of its body and circular stripes around its tail and legs. The classic tabby has swirling, marbled patterns on its sides and bars on its tail and legs. Spotted tabbies have large or small spots on their bodies like the Ocicat, Bengal and American Bobtail breeds. Ticked tabbies have a solid-color coat; while they are neither spotted nor striped, they have banded hair strands and sometimes residual stripes on their face, legs and belly. Abyssinians are one example of a ticked tabby.