. Animal physiology. Physiology, Comparative; Physiology, Comparative. 522 BURROWS OF THE HAMSTER. diadema, Fig. 254), without being struck with the marvellous sagacity which it displays in the execution of its work, and the perfection with which its web is constructed. 699. An equally curious instinct is often displayed in the construction of the habitations which the animal designs for its abode. Thus the Hamster, a small rodent animal allied to the Rat, which is met with in most cultivated districts on the Con- tinent from Alsace to Siberia, and which is very injurious to agricultu
. Animal physiology. Physiology, Comparative; Physiology, Comparative. 522 BURROWS OF THE HAMSTER. diadema, Fig. 254), without being struck with the marvellous sagacity which it displays in the execution of its work, and the perfection with which its web is constructed. 699. An equally curious instinct is often displayed in the construction of the habitations which the animal designs for its abode. Thus the Hamster, a small rodent animal allied to the Rat, which is met with in most cultivated districts on the Con- tinent from Alsace to Siberia, and which is very injurious to agriculture, constructs a burrow in the soil, which has always two openings,—one in an oblique direction, which serves the animal for casting out the earth it has dug away,—the other perpendicular, which is the passage by which it enters and makes its exit. These galleries lead to a regular series of circular excavations, which communicate with each other by horizontal passages ; one of these cavities, furnished with a bed of dried herbage, is the abode of the Hamster; and the others serve as magazines for the provisions, which it collects in large quantities. 700. There are certain Spiders known to Zoologists under the name of My gales, which per- form operations analogous to those of the Hamster, but still more com- plicated ; for not only do they ex- cavate in the ground a large and commodious habitation, but they line it with a silken tapestry, and furnish it with a door regularly hung upon a hinge. For this pur- pose, the Mygale digs, in a clayey soil, a sort of cylindrical pit, about 3 or 4 inches in length; and plasters its walls with a sort of very consistent mortar. It then Fig. 255.— Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Carpenter, William Benjamin, 1813-1885. London : Wm. S. Orr an
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