NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HAMSTER. 583 



in the burrows, which however is very small at that season, 

 and never exceeds 8 lbs. But after the summer- corn has 

 been reaped, and throughout the autumn, the trouble of the 

 hamster diggers is much better repaid, as they often find 

 50lbs. or more of corn in one burrow. The wheat and rye 

 are cleaned and washed by them, and after having become 

 dry they are as good for household purposes as any other. 

 Barley, oats, peas, beans, french-beans, &c, obtained in this 

 manner are commonly sold at half the price of what they 

 cost in the market, and used for feeding pigs or poultry, with- 

 out the same careful preparation to which wheat and rye are 

 subjected. At the season when the hamsters are persecuted 

 only for obtaining the skins, a skilful hamster-digger may 

 catch (and has often caught) as many as 120, both young 

 and old, on the same day ; and in autumn, when two com- 

 rades commonly work together, a pair of hamster-diggers 

 have sometimes obtained 400lbs. of corn, &c, within the 

 same time. 



Methods of catching and destroying the hamster. —The 

 most usual way in which the animal is caught, is by digging 

 it out of its burrow. For this operation a spade is used, and 

 a peculiar kind of instrument consisting of an iron rod about 

 a foot and half long, and having a sharp hook on one end, 

 and a little shovel or scraper on the other. The hook is used 

 to pull the animal out as soon as it makes its appearance in 

 the course of the operation of digging, which begins from 

 the creeping-hole ; the scraper serves to keep the canal clear 

 and to loosen the contents of the store-chambers. Besides, 

 the people have sacks, into which to put the hamsters, corn, 

 &c. They see the burrows at a considerable distance by the 

 heap of earth. When this is small, and the holes are narrow 

 and little distant from each other, they know that the inha- 

 bitant is young, that there is scarcely any corn, and that they 

 will get only 1 pfennig for the trouble of digging out such a 

 burrow, as the skin is of no value. Therefore they leave 

 such a hamster alone, that he may grow old and profitable. 

 But if the burrow have many plunging-holes, which are 

 smooth and not mouldy, they know that it is inhabited by a 

 female with her young. It is then worth while to dig after a 

 litter of from five to eighteen young ones, which are got at 

 with but little trouble. Formerly, when only 3 pfen. were 

 paid for the old one at the mansion-house, she was allowed 

 to escape, in order that she might bring more grist to the mill 

 by producing a fresh litter, and she is sure to make the best 

 of her way by digging onward in an horizontal direction ; but 

 now, as her price is 1 gro. there is inducement enough to dig 



