320 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
SUB-FAMILY CRICETINA. 
CHARACTER.— Molars tuberculate ; infra-orbital opening sub-typical, 
not much narrowed below, and the perpendicular plate little developed ; 
large internal cheek pouches.—Ads¢on. 
GENUS CRICETUS—THE HAMSTERS. 
Form thick-set, with short 
limbs and tail, the latter 
sparsely haired, not scaly. 
“Skull with marked but 
rounded supra-orbital ridges 
continued intotemporal ridges ; 
coronoid process high and fal- 
cate” (Adston). The incisors 
are plain; the molars tuber- 
culated when young, but in 
the old animal the tubercles 
are worn down and exhibit 
lamin. They are very nearly 
related to the true rats, but 
= differ conspicuously in the pos- 
Dentition of Cricetus. session of large cheek pouches 
—like those of the pouched 
monkeys, into which they stuff the grain they carry to their burrows. 
The hind-limbs have five 
toes, the fore-feet four 
only, the thumb being 
represented by a wart. 
The European hamster is 
a very destructive little 
animal, from its numbers 
and the quantity of grain 
it stores away in its bur- 
rows. They have two 
sets of burrows for sum- 
mer and winter, the lat- © 
ter being the deepest CATE 
and most complicated. Cricetus. 
They pass the winter 
in a torpid state, but make up for it by their activity in the sum- 
mer months. The young are produced twice in the year and in 
