WELL-PILLED GRANARIES 



straw, and has three tunnels converging into it, those of 

 entrance and exit, and a third leading to the store-room. 

 The latter chamber is round or oval in shape, and towards 

 the end of autumn is filled with corn. Young hamsters 

 only make one granary, but the older animals have from 

 three to five, and store up more than a peck of grain in each, 

 packing it very tightly, and in some cases even filling the 

 passages as well. Often, however, the entrance to the 

 granary is carefully blocked up with earth. Formerly it was 

 believed that the hamster sorted out different kinds of 

 grain and stored them separately ; but as a matter of fact, he 

 gathers in his harvest just as he finds it, and when the 

 various grains are discovered in separate stores it is not due 

 to any special love of order on the animal's part, but merely 

 to the circumstance that each kind linseed, beans, and so 

 forth is gathered as it ripens, and at different times of the 

 year. 



The burrow of the female is not quite the same as the one 

 we have described ; as in the other case, there is a single 

 creeping hole, but the entrances are numerous usually from 

 two to eight and are often connected with one another. 

 These holes enable the young hamsters to enter their home 

 quickly in case of need ; while they are still very young, 

 however, one doorway serves for them all. The mother 

 hamster seldom makes any store-rooms ; she is kept far too 

 busy in caring for her family to have time for anything else 

 so long as the children remain in the parental home. 



Hamsters sleep through the winter, and wake up again 

 about February or March when the ground begins to soften. 

 They do not open up their burrows immediately, however, 

 but go on living indoors for a while, obtaining food from the 

 plentiful supply in their granaries. The females are the 

 first to venture abroad in search of young shoots of corn or 



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