THE MOUSE TRIBE. 125 



the entrance and exit passages are polished smooth by the constant friction of the 

 coats of their occupants. Of the chambers, the dwelling-place is the smaller, and 

 has smooth walls and the floor strewn with fine straw ; it has three apertures — 

 two communicating with the exterior, and the third with the granary. Young 

 hamsters have but a single granary in their burrows, but the old males, which 

 spend the whole summer collecting, frequently have from three to five such 

 chambers. These are completely filled with corn, the passage communicating with 

 the dwelling-chamber being frequently stopped up with earth. All kinds of corn 

 are equally acceptable to these industrious little animals; and it will often be 

 found that, while one part of the store-chamber is filled with grain of a particular 

 kind, the other portion may contain a different sort. In addition to corn, which 

 forms their main winter nutriment, hamsters in summer eat peas, beans, roots, 

 fruits, grass, and other green herbage ; and in captivity these animals will eat almost 

 any kind of food that is put before them. 



Burrows of the nature described above are constructed solely for winter use ; 

 and when the weather becomes cold in October the hamsters retire to their inner- 

 most recesses for their hibernation; the entrance and exit of each burrow being 

 then closed witli earth. In February or March the animals awake from their 

 slumbers, although they do not for some time open their burrows, where they 

 remain feeding upon the stores of corn. About the middle of March the adult 

 males make their first appearance abroad : and these are followed early in April by 

 the females. At this time they devour ravenously almost anything that comes 

 before them, not refusing an occasional vounjz bird, a mouse, or a beetle. Soon 

 afterwards they set about constructing their summer-burrows; on the completion 

 of which the sexes pair. These summer-burrows are of simpler construction than 

 the winter habitations, being seldom more than one or two feet in depth. Usually 

 these burrows contain but a single chamber of about a foot in diameter. In the 

 case of the females the nest-chamber has one exit passage, but from two to eighl 

 entrances ; although until the young go afield but one. of the latter is used ; the 

 advantage of these numerous entrances when there is a large number of young 

 being sufficiently obvious. The nest-chamber is furnished with a bed of soft hay. 

 Towards the end of April the males visit the burrows of the females ; and if two 

 individuals of them should happen to meet in the same domicile, a fierce en- 

 counter ensues, the hamster, for its size, being an extremely ferocious and quarrel- 

 some animal. In from four to five weeks after the pairing-time the first litter of 

 young is produced, the number in each litter vai'ying from six to eighteen ; and as a 

 second equally numerous brood comes into the world in July, the rate of increase 

 of these animals is exceedingly rapid. When born, the young, although furnished 

 with teeth, are naked and blind. The hair, however, quickly grows, and by the 

 eighth or ninth clay the eyes are opened ; while within a fortnight the young are 

 able to burrow, and are soon after driven away by their parents to shift for them- 

 selves. Although hamsters do not attain their full growth for a twelvemonth, it 

 appears certain that a female born in May is capable of producing offspring in the 

 ensuing autumn. 



With these marvellously rapid powers of reproduction it is no wonder that 

 hamsters frequently appear in countless swarms, when they inflict incalculable 



