MAMMALIA—HAMSTER. 241 
The habitations of the hamsters are different, according to their sex and 
age, and also to the quality of the land they inhabit. That of the male 
hamster, is an oblique passage, and at the entrance isa portion of earth 
thrown up. Ata distance from the entrance, there is a single hole, which 
descends in a perpendicular manner to the chambers or cavities of the 
habitation. There is no hillock of earth near that hole; which makes us 
presume, that the oblique entrance is made hollow from the outside, and 
that the perpendicular hole, by which they come out, is worked withinside, 
from the bottom to the top. 
The habitation of the female has also an oblique passage, with two or 
three, and even eight perpendicular holes, by which the young ones may 
come in and goout. The male and the female have each their separate 
abode; that of the female is deeper than that of the male. 
The perpendicular hole is the common passage for coming in and going 
out. By the oblique road, they throw out the earth they scratch up. This 
passage also has a gentle declivity into some of the cavities, and another 
more steep into others, which serve for a free circulation of the air in this 
subterraneous habitation. The cavity where the female breeds her young 
contains no provision, but only a nest formed of straw or grass. The depth 
of the cavity is very different. The young hamster, of a year old, makes 
its burrow only a foot deep, while the old animal often hollows it to the 
depth of four or five feet. All the cavities communicate together in one 
habitation, which is about eight or ten feet in diameter. 
These animals siore their magazines with dry clover, corn, and other 
grain; beans and peas they likewise provide themselves with; all these 
they are particularly careful to separate from the husk, which, with every 
other matter they do not make use of, they carry out of their habitation by 
this oblique passage. 
The hamster commonly gets in its winter provisions ‘at the latter end 
of August. Its stores are not meant for a winter supply, it being torpid at 
that season, but for the preceding and following period. When it has filled 
its magazines, it covers them over, and shuts the avenues to them carefully 
with earth. This precaution renders the discovery of these animals very 
difficult. The heaps of earth which they throw up before the otlique pas- 
sage, are the only marks to trace their habitations. The most usual method 
of taking them, is by digging them out of their holes, which is attended 
with much trouble, on account of the depth and extent of their burrows; 
however, a man versed in this business, commonly effects his purpose with 
good success. In autumn, he seldom fails of finding two good bushels of 
corn in each of their habitations; and he draws great profit from the skins 
of tne animals. The hamsters bring forth their young two or three times 
in a year, and seldom less than five or six each time. Some years there 
are great numbers of them to be seen, and in others, scarcely any to be 
met with. They multiply in great numbers when the seasons are wet, 
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