There is also a light colored 'butterfly' pattern on the shoulders and three thin stripes (the center stripe is dark) running along its spine. The body is marked with a whirled or swirled pattern (often called a 'bullseye') on the cat's sides. Classic tabbies have the 'M' pattern on their foreheads too. The classic tabby cat (also known as 'blotched' or 'marbled') has a pattern usually in the colors of dark brown, ochre, and black but sometimes grey. A mackerel tabby pattern is the only striped coat pattern seen in domestic cats. Mackerels are also called 'Fishbone tabbies' probably because of the mackerel fish. This is what some people refer to as a 'tiger.' An 'M' shape appears on the forehead along with dark lines across the cat's cheeks to the corners of its eyes. A 'mackerel tabby' has narrow stripes that run in parallel down its sides. The legs and tail have dark bars as do the cat's cheeks. Mackerel is the original pattern and is by far the most common tabby pattern. The 'patched' tabby is a calico or tortoiseshell cat with tabby patches (also known as 'caliby' and 'torbie'). There is also a fifth pattern that includes tabby as part of another basic color pattern. There are four tabby patterns that are genetically different: mackerel, classic, spotted, and ticked. Tabby patterns Grey Classic tabby, showing the bullseye pattern Brown spotted tabby pattern on an Ocicat The tabby pattern happens naturally because of cats' closest ancestor, the African Wildcat. The tabby pattern is in many pure breeds of cats, as well as in mixed breeds. About two-thirds of the world's cat population are tabbies. These cats often have a mark that looks like the letter 'M' on their foreheads. Tabby cat, also known as grey tiger, or simply tabby is the name for domestic cats with fur coats of stripes, dots, lines or swirling patterns. Mackerel tabby with the striped pattern The ticked tabby pattern is a trait of Abyssinians

Grey ticked tabby