234 GNAWING ANIMALS 



two and a half inches. Its coat is brownish-yellow on 

 the back, the under parts are chiefly black, and the feet 

 are white ; but in different regions there is considerable 

 variation in colour, from black to almost pure white. 



The Hamster is perhaps the most systematic of all the 

 burrowers. Its winter quarters, in particular, are of quite 

 elaborate construction. The spacious dwelling-chamber is 

 one or even two yards deep, with an almost vertical hole 

 for an entrance and a gradually ascending tunnel for 

 an outlet. The males and females and young ones use 

 separate burrows as they do separate storehouses ; of these 

 last a male will sometimes construct three or four. Breed- 

 ing twice a year, with families of six to eighteen, in 

 favourable localities the Hamster increases rapidly and 

 works immense injury to crops. 



The animal is by no means a vegetarian, but will kill 

 and eat smaller animals, including those of its own kind. 

 There is no vegetable substance that it will not devour ; 

 but corn, peas, and beans are chiefly what it stores up for 

 winter use. It conveys its spoils to its burrow treasury 

 in its cheek pouches, which are of a half-pint capacity. 

 The injury that Hamsters may work to agriculturists can 

 be easily gauged from the fact that a single animal will 

 hoard a couple of bushels of wheat, and of beans still more. 



Hamsters hibernate from October to at least the end of 

 January. When they awake they do not leave the burrow, 

 but for some weeks subsist upon the stores they accumu- 

 lated during the previous autumn. Peasants go Hamster- 

 hunting in the winter, the net results of which consist 

 of skins and no inconsiderable quantity of hoarded grain. 



LEMMING (My odes lemmus). 

 Coloured Plate XIV. Fig. 2. 



The Lemming is another Vole-like animal, about six 

 inches in length, including its half-inch tail. It is an 

 inhabitant of the northern regions of both hemispheres, the 

 European species figured in the illustration being the 

 largest. In Scandinavia, where it is best known, it abounds 



