HAMSTERS, LEMMINGS, DOKMICE. 35? 



The hamsters (Cricetus) inhabit the greater portion of Europe 

 and Central and Northern Asia, the range of the common species 

 (C. frumeiitarius or vulgaris) extending from the Rhine to the Obi, 

 and from the Obi and Irtish southward to Persia and the Caucasus ; 

 other species inhabit the elevated steppes of Mongolia. Pouched 

 rats allied to the hamsters (Cricetomys, Saccostomus) are also found 

 in various parts of Africa. The lemmings, which are readily dis- 

 tinguished from the field-mice by the hairy covering on the soles 

 of the feet, and their sickle-shaped claws, are the most strictly 

 northern forms of all Rodentia. The better known species are the 

 Scandinavian or Norwegian lemming (Myodes lemmus), the Si- 

 berian lemming (M. Obensis), which inhabits the boreal regions of 

 both hemispheres, and the Hudson Bay lemming (Cuniculus tor- 

 quatus or Hudsonius), an inhabitant of Arctic America, Greenland, 

 and corresponding latitudes in the Eastern Hemisphere ; it is also 

 found in Nova Zembla. 



A strictly American genus of MuridaB is Fiber, of which the 

 only recognised species is the musk-rat (F. zibethicus), whose range 

 embraces practically the whole of North America. A closely re- 

 lated, but considerably smaller, form is the recently described Neo- 

 fiber Alleni, from Brevard County, Florida. Of the non-murine 

 families of myomorphs the dormice (Myoxida3) and mole-rats 

 (Spalacidae) belong to the Old "World exclusively, the pouched 

 rats (Saccomyida?) are American, and the true jumping-mice or 

 jerboas (Dipodidse) both Old and New World forms. The dor- 

 mice are scattered over the greater portion of temperate Eurasia, 

 from Britain to Japan, and southward over almost the whole of 

 Africa; they appear to be wanting in the warmer parts of Asia 

 (India). The common northern species, Muscardinus avellanarius, 

 is more generally replaced in the south by Glis vulgaris, the ' ' seven- 

 sleeper" of the Germans, whose range extends eastward to the 

 Volga River and Georgia. Of the mole-rats, which are confined 

 almost wholly to the African continent and the tracts comprised in 

 the Oriental region, only a very limited number of species (Spalax) 

 pass within the European boundaries, and these are restricted 

 largely to the southeastern districts (Southeast Russia, Greece, 

 Hungary). Bathyergus maritimus, the " great rodent-mole," in- 

 habits the sand dunes of the Cape coast of Africa. The distribu- 

 tion of the distinctively North American family of pouched rats 



