THE SAVAGE WORLD. 5*3 
odors that its mere presence is as baneful as the secretions used by the skunk. 
Its hair is short, mouse-colored, and growing whitish on the under parts. 
The European Hamster (Cricetus frumentarius) is very much like the true 
rat, but has large cheek-pouches. Its range is of wide extent embracing most 
of Europe and Asia. The hamster is about nine inches long; its tail three. 
The color of the upper parts is a reddish-brown, below it is black and the feet 
are white. It has one white spot on the throat, another on the breast, and three 
light spots on each of its sides but different varieties are of different colors, one 
species being black. They are a great pest to the farmers, for they not only have 
a voracious appetite and an enormous capacity for stuffing themselves, but having 
eaten all they 
possibly can, 
they crowd 
into their 
pouches all 
the wheat, 
peas, and 
beans these 
will hold, and 
carry this 
food off to 
their burrows 
for winter use. 
Here the for¬ 
age is care¬ 
fully cleaned 
and the husks 
and chaff 
thrown away. 
The peasant 
who goes dur¬ 
ing the win¬ 
ter to hunt 
the hamster 
for its skin, 
opens the bur¬ 
row and pos¬ 
sesses himself of the edible contents, sometimes finding in a single storehouse 
as much as two bushels of grain. The animals’ mode of constructing these com¬ 
bined magazines and dwellings is very elaborate. First, they form the vestibule 
by digging down obliquely. At the back end of this, the male sinks a single 
perpendicular shaft, the female several. At the end of these passages several 
rooms are formed, for each young one is said to have its private apartment, and 
some are used for pantries. Except during a very short season of mating the 
male and female occupy separate apartments and see little or nothing of each 
other. The hamsters fight, kill and devour animals of their own species, and 
lesser animals of other sorts. During the entire cold season they hibernate, yet 
so great is the damage they do during the summer, that famines have been caused 
by them, and governments have had to set a price upon their heads. 
33 
