136 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



self on his hind legs, and darts on the object of his fury, 

 and if he seize it will not quit his hold with life ; and Son- 

 nini adds, that he had seen a Hamster confined in a cage, 

 and irritated by means of an iron rod nearly red hot, seize 

 the rod with his teeth, and in spite of the pain he must have 

 suffered still persist in keeping his hold. 



The Hamster digs with great facility ; each burrow it 

 forms is composed of two entrances, one which conducts to 

 an oblique canal, at the entrance of which the animal 

 throws out and accumulates the earth which it is forced to 

 remove, the other which serves as an exit to a vertical 

 canal, which is the true entrance to the burrow. These two 

 canals conduct to a greater or less number of particular 

 excavations of a circular form, which according to the age 

 of the animal are from about one to five feet in diameter, 

 and communicate together by horizontal conduits. One of 

 these excavations is the retreat of the Hamster ; it is fur- 

 nished with a good bed of dry herbs, and it is here that the 

 females bring forth. The other excavations constitute the 

 magazines of provision. 



Each animal has its own burrow. The males have 

 usually but two openings to theirs. The females form se- 

 veral by vertical conduits, especially when they have young 

 ones. The burrows of the old individuals sometimes em- 

 brace a considerable extent ; they descend to four or five 

 feet in depth, and frequently contain many bushels of corn 

 or other grain. They are sought out with great care, as 

 much to collect what they contain, as to destroy the ani- 

 mals which form them, and which, when they are nume- 

 rous, cause great devastation in the harvest. In the envi- 

 rons of Gotha, it is said, that in a single year eighty thou- 

 sand of these animals have been killed ; they are discovered 

 by the quantity of earth accumulated at the entrance of their 

 oblique excavation. These Rodentia are not merely grani- 

 vorous ; they will also eat flesh, and often devour one ano- 



