NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HAMSTER. 533 



Art. II. — On the Natural History of the German Marmot (Ham- 

 ster). By W. Weissenborn, Ph. D. 



( Continued from page 483,) . 



Enemies. — Dogs of almost any breed are very eager to de- 

 stroy the hamster, but never devour it. They are, I believe, 

 in many neighbourhoods the great means of preventing the 

 hamster from multiplying to an injurious extent. Many a 

 plodding citizen is working for the good of the community, 

 in wending his way homewards, accompanied by his dog, 

 from some distant ale-house in the dusk of the evening ; for 

 whilst he talks on politics, his dog is more usefully occupied 

 in killing hamsters in the neighbouring fields, which in seve- 

 ral instances have been thoroughly got rid of, pro tempore, 

 along the roads leading to places of public resort, where 

 the ale happened to be good. The fox destroys a great many 

 hamsters, but their most inveterate enemy is the pole-cat, 

 which wages the same unrelenting war against the hamster, 

 as the weasel does with the rat. The pole-cat makes its chief 

 food of the hamster during autumn, penetrating into its bur- 

 rows, and taking up its abode there, if convenient, where he 

 lays up a store of often as many as ten dead hamsters. This 

 is a well known feature in the habits of the pole-cat, as for 

 instance, in the neighbourhood of rivers large stores of eels 

 have been found in the burrow of that animal. The large 

 owls are also among the enemies of the hamster. On the 

 means employed by man to destroy this animal, we shall treat 

 further below. But I ought to mention among its enemies, 

 two parasitic creatures, both discovered by Dr. Sulzer. The 

 first is the Acarus criceti (ovalis, albus, pellucidus, pedibus 

 aequalibus, aeque dissitis, obtusis) ; this mite is about half 

 as large as the head of a flea ; it has eight equidistant feet of 

 e^ual length and thickness, which are as long as the body is 

 broad. The foremost pair has eight joints, those farther behind 

 have more. They are hairy and truncated. Head pointed, 

 very small, with two antenna, that are twice as long as the 

 head, and after embracing the latter converge towards their 

 extremities. They resemble the feet, but are naked. When 

 the insect is replete with blood, its belly, which is bristly 

 here and there, looks red. It runs rather quick, is found on 

 old and young, even sucking specimens, and does not leave 

 the animal during its winter sleep, which it does not share. 

 The hamster diggers are often bitten by these Acari, which 

 cause severe burning and itching, as they dig themselves 

 into the skin. After eight or ten hours, however, all pain 

 ceases, and the parasite cannot continue in existence on man 



