THE HAMSTER 233 



there is no apparent neck. The animal is furred to its 

 nostrils, its coat being chiefly blackish-brown with grey on 

 the under parts, and in texture it is soft and glossy like that 

 of the beaver. In its thick-set form and not a few of its 

 instincts the Musquash resembles the last-named animal, 

 with which at one time it was supposed to be closely allied. 



The Musk Rat, so called from its musky odour, is a well- 

 equipped aquatic animal. Water plants form a great part 

 of its food, varied with fish and fresh-water mussels. The 

 burrow of the animal is always in the bank of a stream, 

 with numerous passages, whose entrances are always under 

 water. In a nest in the burrow as many as five to nine 

 young ones are born at a birth, and there is often more 

 than one litter in a year. 



For use in the winter the animal frequently constructs 

 a dome-shaped ' hut,' either upon the bank of a river or in 

 the stream itself upon a mound of mud, sufficient to raise 

 it above the water. Though some writers assert that these 

 huts are comparable to the lodges of the beaver, there is 

 no doubt that the winter quarters of the smaller animal are 

 little better than heaps of roots and other vegetable sub- 

 stances. It can burrow into them for cover and warmth, 

 and can at the same time satisfy the claims of an appetite 

 that is always more or less obtrusive. 



The Musquash is hunted for its fur, which is useful 

 but not particularly valuable. Twenty years ago as many 

 as four million skins annually marked the abundance of the 

 animal and the assiduity of the trappers. The numbers are 

 now very considerably smaller. Notwithstanding its musky 

 odour, the insipid flesh of the Musquash is a constant dish 

 with the Indians in winter. 



HAMSTEE ( Cricetus frumentarius) . 

 Coloured Plate XIV. Fig. 6. 



The Common Hamster, unknown in Britain, is found 

 throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and in Central and 

 Northern Asia. It is a handsomely coloured animal just 

 under a foot in length, with a tapering hairy tail of 



