PROVISIONS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 83 



have ripened, he harvests quantities of them and 

 hides them wherever he can. Making use of the 

 cavities he is acquainted with around his domain, 

 hollow trees, holes that he makes in the earth beneath 

 bushes, etc., he fills them with fruits, and when winter 

 has come he extracts them to munch. 



Animals who construct barns. — The Field Rat of 

 Hungary and Asia {Psammomys') gathers wheat 

 during the summer. He cuts the blades and trans- 

 ports them to his home, where he stores them up in 

 very considerable quantities ; and during rigorous 

 winters when famine appears also among men, 

 gleaners of another species appear on the scene and 

 seek for corn under the earth in the nests of the 

 Psammomys. A single rat can store up more than a 

 bushel. Those who are skilful in finding their holes 

 can thus in a day glean a good harvest, to the detri- 

 ment of the rats who are thus in their turn reduced to 

 beggary. 



The Hamster also makes provision of grain, but he 

 introduces two improvements : the first at the harvest 

 by only taking the edible part of the ear, and the 

 second by constructing barns distinct from his home. 

 Each possesses a burrow composed of a sleeping 

 chamber, around which he has hollowed one or two 

 others communicating with the first by passages, and 

 intended to serve as barns. The old and more ex- 

 perienced animals prepare even four or five of these 

 storehouses. The end of summer is their season for 

 work. They scatter themselves in the fields of barley 

 or wheat, pull down the stalks of the cereals with their 

 anterior paws, and then cut off the ear with their 

 teeth. This done, they set about thrashing their 

 wheat — that is to say, they separate the grain from the 



