NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HAMSTER. 581 



effect of greatly reducing the number of hamsters ; and since 

 that period the magistracy have succeeded in preventing the 

 multiplication of the animal from becoming a public calamity. 



Total, 286,839 5,396 19 9 1 



During this whole period old females were paid for at the 

 rate of 1 groschen (1 Jd.) each, old males at 6, 4, or 3 pfennige 

 in different years, and young ones at 1 pfennig 2 throughout. 

 If we look back to more remote times, we find that in the 

 years 1699, 1710, 1751, and 1761, orders were issued by the 

 government of Gotha to destroy the hamsters. They must 

 have been very numerous in the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century, as in 1721, 54,429 (19,145 old and 35,284 young) 

 hamsters were paid for at the mansion-house of Gotha, as 

 well as 25,707 in the neighbouring villages. After the mid- 

 dle of the same century their numbers had decreased, as the 

 registers kept at the mansion-house of Gotha record 27,574 

 (6629 old and 20,945 young) from Michaelmas 1768 to Mi- 

 chaelmas 1769, and 22,812 (7244 old and 15,568 young), 

 during the twelve months beginning with Michaelmas 1771. 

 It ought to be understood that the whole of the fields be- 



1 From this table it appears that very wet years are as favourable to the 

 increase of the hamster as dry and hot ones. For 1817 was a very wet year 

 as well as its predecessor, and yet in the five years of 1822, 1825, 1827, 1830 

 and 1831, the hamsters contrived to become comparatively very numerous. 



2 There are 12 pfennige to a groschen. One fourth of the premiums was 

 paid out of the public funds, and three fourths by the proprietors or farmers. 



