THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY 



OCTOBER, 1839. 



Art. I. — On the Natural History of the German Marmot (Hamster). 

 By W. Weissenborn, Ph. D. 



Having been engaged, at different periods of my life, in stu- 

 dying the habits of the German marmot, I have made various 

 communications on this curious animal to foreign scientific 

 societies, more especially to the Zoological Society of Lon- 

 don ; in consequence of which Mr. Charlesworth did me the 

 honour of wishing me to draw up a more complete article on 

 a creature which presents so many interesting and uncommon 

 features, both in its organization and habits, and with which, 

 the English, luckily for their agricultural population, have, in 

 their own country, no opportunities of becoming acquainted. 

 I have, therefore, arranged all the materials I could collect on 

 the subject from authentic sources, especially from Dr. Sul- 

 zer's monograph, as far as it has not become obsolete, adding 

 to them such of my own observations as I thought sufficiently 

 substantiated and interesting, and now venture to submit my 

 article to the readers of the Magazine of Natural History. 



I shall begin with a general statement of the most promi- 

 nent features which render the epithet of " curious " applica- 

 ble to the German marmot. 



1. Its peculiar outward form, in which that of several other 

 rodents is blended. It has the truncated snout, cleft upper 

 lip, and downcast under lip, of the hare ; the shape of the 

 trunk approaches to that of the rat, though it be fuller, whilst 

 the hamster possesses the short tail of the Hypud&us arvalis, 

 Illig. As to the relative size of the head, it stands between 

 the rat and the guinea-pig {Cavia Cobaya, Illig.) 



2. The colour of its hair, which presents the great peculi- 

 arity of being black all over the belly, and of a much paler 



Vol. III.— No. 34. n. s. 3 f 



