Funnily enough.... I am about to begin a thread about black coat colour in cats and in the book I am looking at it says this about Tabbys.
There are several variations on the `classic` tabby coat pattern. There may be thin dark lines, sometimes breaking into spots or dashes to create a striped `tiger` effect. There are five types of tabbies: the Mackerel Tabby, the Blotched Tabby, the Spotted Tabby, the Ticked Tabby and the Patched Tabby. The range of colours is enormous and includes black, grey, white, brown, red, cream, silver, fawn and chestnut.
And I found this interesting too.
HOW THE TABBY GOT ITS NAME
`Tabby` cats are so called because their mottled coat pattern resembles a type of silk fabric with a watered pattern of the same name. The word `tabby` is derived from the Al-Attabiya quarter of Bagdad where tabby was originally woven.
Christine