854 
PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
THE HAMSTER. 
The Hamster, an inhabitant of the Yalley of the Rhine and of tire 
eastern side of the Vosges, originally of the ISTorth, lives in a bur- 
row like the rabbit, but he possesses the instinct of foresight, which 
the latter has not. 
The burrow of the hamster is a rich magazine of provisions, 
[sometimes seven feet deep, and containing a great store.] 
It is the hamster who has invented cellars for the preservation 
of grains. 
Nature, to favor his conservative tendencies, has endowed him 
with two enormous pockets or wallets, placed on each side of the 
jaws — a precious apparatus, which the animal uses to carry into 
his fort the provisions which he gathers, i, e., the tithe which he 
raises on the harvests of the laborer. 
The dwelling of the hamster is the perfect image of the sep- 
arated household and of the cordial understanding of civilized mar- 
ried couples. The male and the female at first agree delightfully 
in pillaging the public in general. Discord comes only at the mo- 
ment of dividing the spoils, as in civilization. 
The male, who has been very happy to use the labor of the fe- 
male in filling his magazine, as the husband in employing the 
dowry of his wife, to extend his parasitical traffic ; the male, from 
the first days of the winter season, begins by reducing the female 
to a moderate share ; afterward, under some injurious pretext, he 
expels her from the conjugal abode. But 'the female, who knows 
her rights, and the cachette where the treasure is hidden, does not 
so easily abandon her part. Obliged to run before superior 
strength, she digs a side way to return and bleed the old maggot 
abundantly. 
She does more ; she obtains the assistance of a comrade, and 
the two, profiting by the torpor of the gorged egotist, who sleeps 
upon his treasure, strangle and eat him. For it is the fate of the 
hamster to be devoured by his wife or by his comrade, when he 
has lacked the wit to begin this game himself. 
I have said that during the whole duration of the winter the 
