BURROWING RODENTS. 363 



than they pop into the hole with a rapidity only equalled by 

 that sudden disappearance of Punch, with which, when a child, 

 I have been so much delighted in the streets and squares of 

 London.' 



Many rodents burrow not only for safety, but for the purpose 

 of establishing subterranean provision-stores. Among these 

 provident little animals none is more famous than the hamster, 

 whose enormous cheek-pouches have already brought him under 

 our notice. His dwellings are formed under the earth, and con- 

 sist of more or fewer apartments, according to the age of the 

 animal. A young hamster makes them hardly a foot deep, an 

 old one sinks them to the depth of four or five feet ; and the 

 whole diameter of the residence, taking in all its habitations, is 

 sometimes eight or ten feet. The principal chamber is lined 

 with dried grass, and serves for a lodging ; the others are vaults 

 destined for the preservation of provisions. Each hole of the 

 male hamster has two apertures the one descending obliquely, 

 which serves him to escape in case of a forcible irruption into 

 his premises ; and the other perpendicularly, through which he 

 makes his usual ingress and .egress. The holes of the females, 

 who never reside with the males, have more numerous passages, 

 and frequently six or eight perpendicular openings. 



In the beaver the burrowing faculty expands into a \vonderful 

 building instinct, such as no other quadruped possesses. In 

 summer, this interesting rodent leads a solitary life, in burrows 

 which he digs along the banks of the lakes and rivers of Northern 

 America ; but as soon as the first night-frosts signalize the ap- 

 proach of chilly autumn, he leaves his summer seat, and forms 

 n society with other individuals of his kind, for the purpose of 

 erecting his winter lodge. The associates select, if possible, a spot 

 where the water is always so deep as not to freeze to the 

 bottom in winter ; but in small rivers and creeks, in which the 

 water is liable to be drained off when the back-supplies are 

 congested by the frost, they, with wonderful sagacity, provide 

 against that evil by raising a dam across the stream, almost 

 straight where the current is weak, but where it is more rapid 

 curving more or less with the convex side opposed to the current, 

 so as to break its violence. The materials made use of are drift- 

 wood, green willows, birch, and poplars, intermixed with mud 

 and stones. As if it had been planned by a skilful engineer, 

 this dam opposes a sufficient barrier to the force both of 



