The Living Animals of the World, Volume I: Mammals
The Rodents, or Gnawing Animals 157
These creatures have cheek-pouches to aid them in carrying food. In addition they are most voracious and inquisitive, so that the hamster is a type throughout Central Europe of selfishness and greed. We are sorry to add that John Bull occasionally appears in German cartoons as the " Land-hamster,"7 or land-grabber.O Hamsters are numerous from the Elbe to the Obi. They burrow and make cellars in the corn- and bean-fields, and convey thither as much as a bushel of grain. As soon as the young hamsters can shift for themselves, each moves off, makes a separate burrow, and begins to hoard beans and corn. As the litter sometimes contains eighteen young, the mischief done by the hamster is great. fltoto by A. S. Rudland & Sons. Its coloration is peculiar. The fur, which LONG-EAKED JERBOA. is so thick as to be used for the linings These curious little animals are mainly desert creatures. They move by a seiies of leaps. of coats, is a light yellowish brown above. A yellow spot marks each cheek. The lower surface of the body, the legs, and a band on the forehead are black, and the feet white. Thus the hamster reverses the usual natural order of colour in mammals, which tends to be dark on the back and light below. The animal.is 10 inches long, and very courageous. Hamsters have been known to seize a horse by the nose which stepped on their burrow, and at all times they are ready to defend their home. Besides vegetables and corn, they destroy smaller animals. They spend the winter in a more or less torpid state in their burrows, but emerge early in spring. They then make their summer burrows and produce their young, which in a fortnight after birth are able to begin to make a burrow for themselves. Among the South American members of the group to which the hamster belongs are the FISH-EATING RATS, with webbed hind feet..The RICE-RAT, which is found from the United States to Ecuador, lives on the Texas prairies much as do the prairie-marmots, though its burrows are not so extensive, and often quite shallow. In these the rats make beds of dry grass.
THE VOLES.
The VOLES are allied to the preceding groups, but are marked externally by a shorter and heavier form than the typical rats and mice. Their ears are shorter, their noses blunter, their eyes smaller, - s- Rudland * Sons -and the tail generally shorter. Photo *v A They are found in great num- CAPS JUMPING-HABE. is very common in South Africa. The Boers call it the " Springh.iasberS fit Certain Seasons, When This animal
of the World 158 The Living Animals
they often develop into a pest. The SHORT-TAILED FIELD-VOLE is responsible for much destruction of crops in Europe. One of the latest plagues of these animals took place in the Lowlands of Scotland, where these voles devoured all the higher pastures on the hills. Nearly at the same time a similar plague occurred in Turkish Epirus. When an English commissioner was sent to enquire into the remedies (if any existed) there in fUoto ly A. S. Rudland ct Sons. use, he found that the Turks were OCTODONT. importing holy water from Mecca to The octodonts, so called because they have four molar teeth on each side of the jaw, on the fields affected. The are a group of rodents found mainly in South America. sprinkle BANK-VOLE is a small English species, replaced on the Continent by the SOUTHERN FIELD-VOLE.
The WATER-RAT belongs to the vole group. It is one of the most commonly seen of all our English mammals probably, except the rabbit, the most familiar. Although not entirely nocturnal, it prefers the darkness or twilight; but whenever the visitor to the waterside keeps still, the water-rats will allow him to watch them. The writer has had rather an extensive acquaintance with these cousins of the beavers, and, while watching them, has never ceased to be struck with their close resemblance to those creatures. At Holkham Lake, in Norfolk, he noticed a willow-bush, in which a number of twigs had been gnawed off; and then saw the missing sticks lying neatly peeled, just like "beaver-wood," in the water below. Waiting quietly, he noticed a water-rat climb into the bush, gnaw off a willow twig, descend with it to the edge of the water, and there, sitting on some crossed boughs, peel and eat the is often heard in the round reeds as ofbark, just as a beaver does. By the Thames a sound something tearing or biting them; it is made by the water-rats getting their supper. The rat cuts off three or four sedges and makes a rough platform. It then cuts down a piece of one of the large round reeds full of pith, and, holding it in its hands, seizes the bark with its teeth, and shreds it up the stem, peeling it from end to end. This exposes the white pith, which the rat then eats. Water-rats have been seen to swim out and pick up acacia blossoms floating on the water. is tipped byWhen swimming under water, each hair a little bubble, which makes the rat look like quicksilver. When it comes out, the rat shakes itself with a kind of shiver, throwing all the water off its coat. Though so good a swimmer, its feet are not webbed. It is found from Scotland to the Bering Sea, but not in Ireland. In the Far North the LEMMING takes the place of the voles. It is a very small, short-tailed creature, like a diminutive prairie-dog. Like the voles, lemmings have seasons of immoderate increase. They then migrate in enormous flocks, and are said never to stop till they reach the sea, into which they plunge. It is believed that they are following an inherited instinct, and that where there is now sea there once by L. Mcdland, F.Z.S.] [North Fincldey. was land, over which they passed onwards. COYPU. e found south on the rodent, a larg. This ". Its. rivers. The MUSK-RAT inhabits the same waters as the American a valuable forms t ^aticfur, called "nutria, beaver of North America. It makes a house, generally export from Argentina.
The Rodents, or Gnawing Animals 159
of reeds piled in a mound, in the lakes and is only 12 inches long, swamps. The body but the fur is thick and close, and much used for lining coats and cloaks. The vast chains of rivers and lakes in Canada make that country the favourite home of the muskrat. This creature lives upon roots of aquatic plants, freshwater-mussels, and stems of juicy herbs. Besides making the domed houses of grass, reeds, and mud, it also burrows in the banks of streams. There it makes rather an elaborate home, with numerous passages leading to the water. The odour of musk is very strong even in the skin. The tail is narrow and almost naked. This species is the largest of the vole group.
THE TYPICAL EATS AND MICE.
Photo by A. S. Kudland & Sons.
These animals were originally an Old SHORT-TAILED HUTIA. World group. Though the brown rat is now The hntias are another group of octodonts, found in the West India Islands.common in America, it is believed to have come originally from China.
A very large number of animals are now almost dependent on man and his belongings. Such creatures are said to be " commensalistic," or eaters at the same table. They are often very unwelcome guests, whether they are flies, sparrows, or cockroaches; but probably the least welcome of all are the rats and mice. The BROWN RAT is the best known of any. It it harbours thehas come into worse repute than usual of late, because it is now certain that plague-bacillus, and communicates the disease to man. Its habits and appearance need no description. The BLACK RAT is the older and smaller species indigenous in Europe, which old houses still hold the blackthe brown rat has almost extirpated from England. A few rat, and there are always a few wild ones at the Zoological Gardens which feed in the animals' houses. The BLACK-AND-WHITE RAT (not the albino white rat) kept tame in this country is probably a domesticated form of the ALEXANDRINE RAT of Egypt.
The HOUSE-MOUSE is now found in all parts of the world to which Europeans have access. is in the corn-ricks.In England its main home is done inWere the farmers to thresh the grain, as the United States, as soon as it is cut, mice would be far less common. Besides these parasitic mice, there are a host of field- and forest-mice in this and other countries. One of the best-known English species is the HARVEST-MOUSE, which makes a globular nest of grass in the wheat-fields, attached to stems of corn or weeds. In this the young are born. In winter the mouse lives in holes in banks, and lays up a store of kernels and grain. The WOOD-MOUSE is larger than the former, or than the HOUSE-MOUSE. It is yellowish brown in colour, lays up a great store of winter food, and is itself the favourite prey the Hon. Walter Rotluchild, Tring.of the t^easel. By permission of PORCUPINE. THE BANDICOOTS. The common porcupine is found in Italy, Spain, and North Africa. This one was kept by Mr. Rothschild, who claSS Of ratS is represented had it photographed by Mr. S. G. Payne, of Aylesbury. A Very mischieVOUS
i6o The Living Animals of the World
by the various species of BANDICOOT. They are found throughout Southern Asia as far as Ceylon, and in Kashmir and Turkestan. The BANDICOOT-RAT of India is a large and destructive species which is sometimes brought to the London docks in ships, but has not spread into the country.
OTHER MURINE RODENTS.
Among the numerous other rodents allied to the rat group are the MOLE-RATS, with short mole-like bodies. The largest is the GREAT MOLE-RAT, found in Southeastern Europe, South-western Asia, and North-eastern Africa. It is a subterranean I'/toto by A. H. liadland d- o,i.. creature, burrowing for food like a mole. PORCUPINE. The BAMBOO-RATS have minute eyes, small This phonograph shows the arrangement of the porcupine's defence of external ears, and a short tail partly tospinesthe body.; but when frightened it erects these, so as to form a complete protection covered with hair. In Somaliland a small, almost naked SAND-RAT is found, which burrows in the sand of the desert, throwing up little heaps like mole-hills.
THE GOPHERS.
In North and Central America the POCKET-GOPHERS form a curious group of small rodents with cheek-pouches opening on the outside. They spend their entire existence underground, and are said to use their incisor teeth as picks to open the hard earth in their tunnels. They push the loosened soil out by pressing it with their chests and fore feet. When a gopher has eaten enough to satisfy the immediate calls of hunger, it stores all spare food away in the feet alonglarge cheek-pouches. When gophers desire to empty the pouches, they pass their their cheeks from behind, and press the food forwards on to the ground.