26 
The Animal-Lore of Shahsjpeare s Time. 
feet, and nails like a cat, of a very terrible aspect, his teeth so strong 
and sharpe that he can cut wood in sunder with them.” 
After a long description of the appearance of the 
ounce, and the exact place and number of most of his 
spots, the doctor proceeds:— 
“ It liveth on flesh, and the female is more cruell then the male, 
though lesser, and one of either sex was brought out of Mauritania into 
England in a ship, for they are bred in Libia. When they are angry 
they utter a voice like an angry dog, but they double the arr twice, 
aud also bigger then any dogs, proceeding out of a large breast and wide 
arteries, much like to the howling of a great mastive, that is shut up 
in a close roome alone against his will. Some say that it is longer then 
a dog, but it did not so appeare in England, for we had many mastive 
dogs as long as it, but yet was it every way greater then any other 
kind of dogs.” (Historie of Four-Footed Beasts , 1607, p. 570.) 
The Wild Cat is the true English cat. It was common 
c in this country in the Middle Ages. Its fur 
was much used as a trimming for dresses 
and other articles of clothing. Like the marten it was 
frequently hunted for the sake of its skin, and so long 
ago as the time of Richard II. an abbot of Peterborough 
obtained a charter granting him permission to hunt cats. 
It has now become entirely extinct in England, though 
in the wilder parts of Scotland it is not uncommon. 
The domestic “ harmless necessary cat ” has no con¬ 
nexion with the above, and was introduced to us from 
the East in early times. Some varieties may have been 
brought over by the Crusaders, but the original home of 
the species seems to have been Persia. In Wales the 
cat was held in great estimation. It was enacted by 
Howel Dha, “ the Good,” that the price of a kitten before 
it could see was to be a penny; if it caught a mouse its 
value was raised to twopence, and afterwards to fourpence. 
If any one stole or killed a cat that guarded the prince’s 
granary, the offender was compelled either to forfeit a 
ewe, or as much wheat as would cover the cat when 
suspended by its tail. 
