Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon

Sub-Family Cricetinæ

Character.—Molars tuberculate; infra-orbital opening sub-typical, not much narrowed below, and the perpendicular plate little developed; large internal cheek pouches.—Alston.

Genus Cricetus — The Hamsters

Dentition of Cricetus.
Cricetus.

Form thick-set, with short limbs and tail, the latter sparsely haired, not scaly. “Skull with marked but rounded supra-orbital ridges continued into temporal ridges; coronoid process high and falcate” (Alston). The incisors are plain; the molars tuberculated when young, but in the old animal the tubercles are worn down and exhibit laminæ. They are very nearly related to the true rats, but differ conspicuously in the possession of large cheek pouches—like those of the pouched monkeys, into which they stuff the grain they carry to their burrows. The hind-limbs have five toes, the fore-feet four only, the thumb being represented by a wart. The European hamster is a very destructive little animal, from its numbers and the quantity of grain it stores away in its burrows. They have two sets of burrows for summer and winter, the latter being the deepest and most complicated. They pass the winter in a torpid state, but make up for it by their activity in the summer months. The young are produced twice in the year and in number varying from six to eighteen, and they develop very rapidly. Their eyes open in about a week, and when a fortnight old the parents drive them off to shift for themselves. The European hamster is a most savage little creature, and has been known to attack even a red-hot bar, and hold on in spite of the pain.

The two following are dwarf species—Cricetulus of some authors:—[22]

22 Dallas mentions (Cassell’s ‘Nat. Hist.’) a species from Kumaon, Cricetus songarus.