114 CLASS MAMMALIA'. 



merous that an observer has waited two hours to see them- 

 all pass. Their return into Kamtschatka is in October, and 

 is attended with the utmost festivity and welcome on the 

 part of the natives, who consider their arrival as a sure 

 prognostic of a successful chase and fishery; and they are 

 said equally to lament their migrations, which are usually 

 succeeded by rainy and tempestuous weather. 



Wormius gives an accurate description of the Lemming 

 (Mas Lemrnus of Lin.) It has, says he, the figure of a mouse, 

 but the tail is much shorter ; the body is about five inches 

 long; the fur is fine, and spotted with many colours ; the 

 anterior part of the head is black, the upper part yellowish ; 

 the neck and shoulders black ; the rest of the body reddish, 

 marked with small black spots of different figures as far as 

 the tail, which does not exceed half an inch in length, and 

 is covered with blackish-yellow hair ; the belly is yellowish- 

 white ; the order of the spots, as well as their figure and 

 size, differ in different individuals ; about the throat there 

 are several long stiff hairs ; the eyes are small and black ; 

 the fore-legs very short ; the feet have five toes covered 

 with sharp bent claws, the middle are much the longest, the 

 fifth very small, and situated above the level of the rest. 



The migratory habits of these animals as related by na- 

 turalists exceed credibility, were they not authenticated on 

 very respectable authority. It is to Pallas we are indebted 

 for a particular account of the animal, in common with the 

 rest of his genus Glires. Shaw has abridged his details, 

 and we shall adopt his account. 



The natural or general residence of the Lemming is in 

 the Alpine or mountainous parts of Lapland and Norway, 

 from which tracts, at particular but uncertain periods, it 

 descends into the plains below, in immense troops, and by 

 its incredible numbers becomes a temporary scourge to the 

 country, devouring the grain and herbage, and committing 



