Dr. Rolleston informs us that the cat of the ancients
never had any rat-devouring to do, for the rat is a medireval animal, first noticed in English literature in Piers Plowman. Lintueus even fancied that the elder of the two rata, the black rat, had been imported from America, though that was a blunder, as the black rat had made his appearance sooner. Dr. Rolleston also remarks that Mr. Galton, whom we quoted last week as making " gregarionsnesa " one of the chief conditions of domes- tication, is at least so far mistaken that all the weasels, one of which, the white-breasted marten, was domesticated by the Romans, are solitary animals. Gregariousness may be a condition enabling animals to be more easily domesticated by the original barbarous tribes which first tamed them, as it renders their wanderings in search of food more easy to track ; but it is not a vera causa affecting domestication, only one additional conveni- ence in the process.
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