RELATIONSHIP WITH FELIS DOMESTIC A. 85 



enacted severe penalties for the killing of a " Mousing 

 Cat," as the race was then called. 



The Romans were probably the original introducers 

 of this Cat, and as the final evacuation of Britain by 

 that nation took place under the Emperor Valen- 

 tinian, c. 436 a.d., the period of its introduction may 

 certainly be dated some 500 years previous to the 

 Welsh chronicle, and probably even much earlier. 

 At Silchester, the old Roman city of Calleva, destroyed 

 by the South Saxons in 493, osseous remains of 

 Cats have been , found, which, from the size and 

 form of the skull, are probably of the Domestic race. 

 In Wright's ' The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon,' 

 p. 339, is an account of a Roman villa at Dursley, 

 near Gloucester, in the debris, mixed with the bones 

 of horse, wild boar, rabbit, mice, goats, pigs, and 

 sheep, are also the bones of cats, which, from the 

 surroundings, were in all probability those of the 

 Domestic race. In a kiln, in a Roman villa found 

 near Great Chesterton, the jaw-bones and other 

 osseous remains of a cat have been discovered, which 

 appear to be those of the Domestic race. The Cat 

 was certainly domesticated in Italy long before the 

 Christian era, and from its known propensities to 

 wander, especially during the night in the " season " 

 period, it would come in contact with the Wild Cat, 

 which was indigenous all over Europe, and the result 

 would be a mixture of the two races. 



