NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HAMSTER. 481 



agriculture spread his table, the hamster is even more carni- 

 vorous than herbivorous ; that is to say, he prefers animal 

 food whenever he can have it. His own species, rats, mice, 

 small birds, lizards, May-bugs and other chafers, caterpillars 

 &c, are greedily devoured by him. In eating vertebrated 

 animals he always begins with the head. When a sparrow 

 or other small bird, whether alive or dead, is presented to the 

 hamster, the first and evidently instinctive action of the lat- 

 ter is to break the wings. I have kept several dozens of this 

 animal in large rooms, providing them with a great variety of 

 green fodder, seeds, and artificial dishes, yet every night the 

 weakest of the company were devoured, and others so severely 

 wounded that they had no chance of escape the next night. 

 By this fondness for animal food the hamster in some degree 

 makes amends for his depredations, for there is no useful ani- 

 mal to which he is dangerous, not even to the partridge, as 

 the same fields near Gotha in which the hamsters swarm, are- 

 well stocked with that bird. Besides, in captivity he eats, 

 with great delight, all sorts of pastry, bread, butter, cheese, 

 broth, &c, and is apt to become a great gourmand. On the 

 other hand, he is not at all addicted to drinking, nor particu- 

 lar in the choice of it. He can live four weeks without wa- 

 ter, and his health will not suffer ; and in the fields, as his 

 rambles do not extend far, he must often content himself for 

 long periods with dew and the juices of succulent herbs. In 

 this he is, no doubt, greatly assisted by being underground 

 about twenty hours out of the twenty-four, which must pre- 

 vent perspiration in a great degree. 



Disposition. — The celebrated Professor Blumenbach used 

 to say in his lectures, when treating on the Mus decumanus, 

 " Thank heaven, gentlemen, that species is not as big as an 

 elephant ; if it were so, the human race would have ceased to 

 exist long ago." The same might not be said, it is true, with 

 an equal degree of probability about the hamster, as he is 

 greatly deficient in that cunning and agility which would 

 render the ferocity of the Mus decumanus so dangerous and 

 destructive, if great physical power were superadded to its 

 other qualities ; yet in point of brutal ferocity the hamster 

 surpasses even that rat. The latter is more sociable, more 

 gregarious in its habits ; it will not kill and devour its con- 

 geners, though of an exceedingly sanguinary disposition, ex- 

 cept when hard pressed by hunger ; whilst the hamster never 

 falls in with another individual of its own species, without 

 trying to make it its prey, the weaker, if not killed, generally 

 making its escape more or less severely wounded. Even the 



