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THE COMMON HAMSTER. 



(Cricetus frumentarius ; C. vulgaris ; Mus Cricetus, Linn.) 

 German Marmot. 



The hamster inhabits the whole tract of countries extending 

 between the Rhine and the Ural Mountains, and between the 

 German Sea and Baltic to the north, and the Danube to the 

 south, wherever it finds its congenial soil, deep, alluvial mould, 

 with a substratum of clay. It is said also to exist in Siberia, 

 but is nowhere more common than in Thuringia. 



The largest male specimens measure, from the tip of the nose 

 to the end of the body, thirteen inches, or, including the length 

 of the tail, one foot three inches 5 the full grown females are 

 about one fourth smaller. The hamster is greyish brown, or 

 hare-coloured above, with three large yellowish spots on each 

 side occupying the flanks, the regions above the shoulders, and 



perfect, low, with a broad flat crown ; the cross ridges of the crown of the 

 upper grinders divided into three distinct slightly raised tubercles : the rest 

 like the genus Mus." Mag. Nat. Hist. (New Series, 1837), vol. i. p. 586. We 

 wish naturalists who are fond of needlessly forming new generic and specific 

 names, would remember the words of Ben Jonson, who says " A man coins 

 not a new word without great risk and less profit ; for if it be refused the scorn 

 is assured, and if it be accepted the praise is but small." Yet some naturalists 

 we could mention seem to think it their most laudable employment to burden 

 science with new fashioned genera, and that the more synonymes they make 

 in a life -time, the higher should be their reputation. J. H. F. 



