450 
MAMMALIA. 
but without the males, who continue to wander about. At the 
end of summer, both males and females again unite in greater or 
less numbers and proceed to form a new colony, for these animals 
never occupy the same dwellings two years running. 
The Hamster Genus . — The Hamsters are about the size of the 
Black Rat ; but the body is more thick- set, and the tail much 
shorter. They are specially characterised by the large bags in 
the sides of the cheek, and extending as far back as the shoulder 
behind the head. Their coat is a russet- grey on the upper part 
of the body, and black or brown underneath, scattered over with 
white and yellow spots. Their fur is valued. 
Hamsters, which are also called German Marmots and Rye- 
Pigs (Fig. 185), are very plentiful in Siberia, Russia, Poland, 
and all over Germany. Alsace is the only province in France 
in which they are found. Their habits resemble very much 
those of the Economic Rat ; but instead of being, like the latter 
animal, a source of profit to the natives of the country which 
they inhabit, they associate with them devastation and ruin. 
Cultivated fields are the usual scene of their depredations ; for 
there they find an abundance of their favourite food. . Occasionally 
they destroy some of the weaker Rodents, such as Mice, Field- 
Mice, &c. 
Burrows, composed of a chamber lined with straw, which serves 
as their lodging, and various storehouses, are excavated by them, 
three or four feet under ground. These communicate with one 
another, while two runs afford access, one of which is oblique and 
winding, and is used by the animal in ordinary circumstances ; 
the other, which is vertical, is reserved for cases of pressing 
necessity. In the storehouses, the Hamster hoards up seeds of 
all kinds — wheat, rye, beans, peas, vetches, linseed, &c. Morning, 
evening, and night, it crams its cheek-pouches with grain, after 
having separated it from the husk; and carrying it into the 
subterranean dwelling, there deposits it. It is said that this 
animal carries the spirit of order to such an extent as to arrange 
in separate chambers the various seeds it stores. 
The quantity which the Hamster thus stores up is some- 
times prodigious. Cases have been knowm where as much as 
one hundred and twenty pounds weight has been taken from a 
single burrow. These figures may give some idea of the ravages 
