58*2 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HAMSTER. 



longing to the town of Gotha comprise an area of less than 

 7000 English acres. 



Although the injury done by the hamsters greatly overbalan- 

 ces their usefulness, yet the latter is by no means trifling. 

 They firstly destroy a great many field-mice, larvae, insects, 

 and other vermin ; then their fur is esteemed for lining coats, 

 night-gowns, &c, as being light and durable. A good one 

 is paid at the rate of 1 Jd. Lastly, their flesh is a very good 

 and wholesome dish, and but for the stupid prejudice which 

 prevails against it, the more easy classes of society might 

 relish it as much as the ancient Romans did that of marmots 

 and dormice. 1 However, it is thrown away to rot, and 

 thought fit food only for gipsies or the poorest people, who 

 do consume it in some neighbourhoods. The gardeners of 

 Erfurt do, and the poor people in Silesia are said to eat a 

 great many hamsters. Hunerwolf (see Ephem. Nat. Cur. 

 Dec. II. Ao. viii. obs. 16, pag. 59) says that a poor old la- 

 bourer at Arnstadt in Thuringia, who had for some time 

 wholly subsisted on hamster-corn and hamster-meat, died of 

 a sort of leprosy. This is the only instance in which bad 

 consequences have been ascribed to that description of food, 

 and the conclusion is evidently fallacious, as the man in 

 question was probably affected with scabies senilis. 



Besides, the stores which the hamsters collect in their 

 burrows are partially reclaimed by such people as possess or 

 farm no land. Where hamsters abound, they effect a sort 

 of equitable arrangement between the proprietors or farmers 

 and the cottagers. The hamster insists on his natural right 

 to steal the corn, and the cottager avails himself of the posi- 

 tive law to sacrifice the thief and possess himself of the stolen 

 property. At Gotha the hamster-diggers have to take out a 

 license. They are mostly labourers or soldiers, and if skilled 

 in this branch of their profession they gain a good livelihood. 

 From March till St. John's day, when the fur of the hamster 

 is finest, they dig after the animal merely for the sake of the 

 fur and the premium, which they get on producing the skins 

 at the mansion-house, where the tails are cut off and burnt. 

 The hamster-diggers have the right to dig even in the fields 

 sown with white crops till St. John's day, but they must fill 

 the excavation again with the earth, which they need not do 

 in the stubble fields. Then there is a pause till the winter- 

 corn is cut, when they dig both for the animal and the store 



1 For the table, the hamster should he obtained about the time that the 

 animal first becomes torpid (about the beginning of November), when it is 

 in high condition, and may be killed without exciting its passion. 



