longing to the town of Gotha comprise an area of less than 7000 English acres.

Although the injury done by the hamsters greatly overbalances their usefulness, yet the latter is by no means trifling. They firstly destroy a great many field-mice, larvæ, insects, and other vermin; then their fur is esteemed for lining coats, night-gowns, &c., as being light and durable. A good one is paid at the rate of 1d. Lastly, their flesh is a very good and wholesome dish, and but for the stupid prejudice which prevails against it, the more easy classes of society might relish it as much as the ancient Romans did that of marmots and dormice. However, it is thrown away to rot, and thought fit food only for gipsies or the poorest people, who do consume it in some neighbourhoods. The gardeners of Erfurt do, and the poor people in Silesia are said to eat a great many hamsters. Hünerwolf (see Ephem. Nat. Cur. Dec. II. Ao. viii. obs. 16, pag. 59) says that a poor old labourer at Arnstadt in Thuringia, who had for some time wholly subsisted on hamster-corn and hamster-meat, died of a sort of leprosy. This is the only instance in which bad consequences have been ascribed to that description of food, and the conclusion is evidently fallacious, as the man in question was probably affected with scabies senilis.

Besides, the stores which the hamsters collect in their burrows are partially reclaimed by such people as possess or farm no land. Where hamsters abound, they effect a sort of equitable arrangement between the proprietors or farmers and the cottagers. The hamster insists on his natural right to steal the corn, and the cottager avails himself of the positive law to sacrifice the thief and possess himself of the stolen property. At Gotha the hamster-diggers have to take out a license. They are mostly labourers or soldiers, and if skilled in this branch of their profession they gain a good livelihood. From March till St. John's day, when the fur of the hamster is finest, they dig after the animal merely for the sake of the fur and the premium, which they get on producing the skins at the mansion-house, where the tails are cut off and burnt. The hamster-diggers have the right to dig even in the fields sown with white crops till St. John's day, but they must fill the excavation again with the earth, which they need not do in the stubble fields. Then there is a pause till the wintercorn is cut, when they dig both for the animal and the store

1 For the table, the hamster should be obtained about the time that the animal first becomes torpid (about the beginning of November), when it is in high condition, and may be killed without exciting its passion.

in the burrows, which however is very small at that season, and never exceeds 8 lbs. But after the summer-corn has been reaped, and throughout the autumn, the trouble of the hamster diggers is much better repaid, as they often find 50lbs. or more of corn in one burrow. The wheat and rye are cleaned and washed by them, and after having become dry they are as good for household purposes as any other. Barley, oats, peas, beans, french-beans, &c., obtained in this manner are commonly sold at half the price of what they cost in the market, and used for feeding pigs or poultry, without the same careful preparation to which wheat and rye are subjected. At the season when the hamsters are persecuted only for obtaining the skins, a skilful hamster-digger may catch (and has often caught) as many as 120, both young and old, on the same day; and in autumn, when two comrades commonly work together, a pair of hamster-diggers have sometimes obtained 400lbs. of corn, &c., within the same time.

Methods of catching and destroying the hamster. -The most usual way in which the animal is caught, is by digging it out of its burrow. For this operation a spade is used, and a peculiar kind of instrument consisting of an iron rod about a foot and half long, and having a sharp hook on one end, and a little shovel or scraper on the other. The hook is used to pull the animal out as soon as it makes its appearance in the course of the operation of digging, which begins from the creeping-hole; the scraper serves to keep the canal clear and to loosen the contents of the store-chambers. Besides, the people have sacks, into which to put the hamsters, corn, &c. They see the burrows at a considerable distance by the heap of earth. When this is small, and the holes are narrow and little distant from each other, they know that the inhabitant is young, that there is scarcely any corn, and that they will get only 1 pfennig for the trouble of digging out such a burrow, as the skin is of no value. Therefore they leave such a hamster alone, that he may grow old and profitable. But if the burrow have many plunging-holes, which are smooth and not mouldy, they know that it is inhabited by a female with her young. It is then worth while to dig after a litter of from five to eighteen young ones, which are got at with but little trouble. Formerly, when only 3 pfen. were paid for the old one at the mansion-house, she was allowed to escape, in order that she might bring more grist to the mill by producing a fresh litter, and she is sure to make the best of her way by digging onward in an horizontal direction; but now, as her price is 1 gro. there is inducement enough to dig

after her, and quarter is no longer granted her. If the heap before the creeping-hole be very large, and mixed with much chaff and pieces of straw,-and if a well-trodden plunginghole exist at the distance of six feet or more, the burrow belongs to an old male; and the hamster-digger exults in the prospect of a good prize. If the season be not far advanced, the people possess themselves only of the stores, sparing the old knowing fellow, not out of gratitude, but that he may collect another store that very season. No legislation, unless incompatible with true justice can prevent the hamster-diggers from doing what they think most profitable to themselves, so far as the killing or sparing of the animals is concerned. I

The hamsters are also easily caught in traps set before their holes. The different kinds of rat-traps will answer the purpose with more certainty for the hamster than for the rat, the former being far less cautious. The trap in most general use is a pot dug into the ground, the cover of which shuts when the hamster enters to take the bait. There is also a very simple trap, the construction of which is founded on the irritable disposition of the hamster. In the middle of a board ten inches square, is made a hole four inches in diameter. A strong nail projects from each side of the board, near the rim of the hole; the sharp points of the nails are bent into the hole, so as to be opposite each other, with a distance of about two inches between them. There are nooses at the four corners of the board, which is fixed over the plunging-hole by means of pegs driven into the ground. In trying to leave or to enter its burrow, the hamster glides over one of the nails and is pricked by the other, upon which the animal gets into a passion, and in rushing violently backwards, after having been repeatedly wounded by the point opposite, he is impaled by the nail over which he first glided.

The animal may also be forced to leave its burrow by pouring into it a large quantity of water, which is perhaps the most convenient method, if a large tun or a cart can be had, and the object be merely to destroy the animal, without obtaining its stores.

Weimar, August 25th, 1839.

The laws which were given for the cercles of Magdeburg and Halberstadt, in August 1696 and May 1714, were more arbitrary. The proprietors were ordered to deliver at the justice's, each year, fifteen hamster-skins for every rood (30 acres) of land; and the cottagers had each to furnish ten skins. For every skin that was wanting in these numbers, they had to pay a fine of 2 groschen.

ART. III. Zoological Notes on a few Species obtained from the South West of Scotland. By WILLIAM THOMPSON, Esq., F.L.S. &c.-Vice-President of the Natural History Society of Belfast.

I SHALL here follow up a few notes commenced in this Magazine in 1838, (p. 18), with reference to the occurrence of some of the rarer, or otherwise interesting species, procured within a limited portion of the south-west of Scotland.

CHESTNUT SHREW. Sorex castaneus, Jenyns., 'Ann. Nat. Hist.' v. ii. p. 43. From the neighbourhood of Ballantrae1 I have received specimens of shrews, which, from agreement with Mr. Jenyns' description, I am disposed to regard as the Sor. castaneus. Some of the species belonging to this genus approach so closely, that it is almost necessary to have a comparison of specimens before a certain conclusion can be arrived at,—in the present instance I have not had this advantage, but judge from the comparison of the individuals under consideration, with others belonging to the most nearly allied species, Sor. tetragonurus, of which I possess two specimens (of different ages) so named by Mr. Jenyns,—the one taken at Twizell, and favoured me by P. J. Selby, Esq., the other taken by myself at Leamington, Warwickshire.

CILIATED SHREW. Sorex ciliatus, Sowerby; Sor. remifer of subsequent British authors. Of this well-marked species I obtained, when at Ballantrae, in August last, an individual taken in the immediate neighbourhood.

BANK VOLE. Arvicola pratensis, Baillon; Bell's 'Brit. Quad.' p. 330. Of this handsome species, distinguished as British only a few years since, I have obtained two specimens from the vicinity of Ballantrae. Mr. Macgillivray mentions its occurrence at "Kelso and Bathgate, in the county of Linlithgow." Naturalists' Library, Brit. Quad.' p. 272.

POMARINE SKUA. Lestris Pomarinus, Temm. I am indebted to a friend for the examination of a specimen of this bird, which was kindly brought from Ballantrae to Belfast for the purpose; it is a young bird of the year, and was found dead on the beach near this village, in the winter of 1837-8. The following measurements may perhaps enable any one interested in the subject, to judge that it is the species here set down.

1 To my friend John Sinclaire, Esq. and to Dr. Wylie, I am indebted for all specimens hence obtained.

Two-SPOTTED GOBY. Gobius Ruthensparii, Euph. Gobius bipunctatus, Yarr.-Of this fish, I, a few years ago, obtained specimens from Portpatrick, through the kindness of Capt. Fayrer, R.N. It is recorded as inhabiting the eastern coast of Scotland, by Dr. Johnston and Dr. Parnell.

VARIABLE WRASSE. Labrus variabilis, Thomps. ;1 Lab. maculatus, Bloch.; I have seen taken commonly on the rocky coasts of Wigton and Ayrshire. It seems common in such localities around the British Islands.

MONTAGU'S SUCKER, Liparis Montagui, Flem., has on two occasions been sent me from Portpatrick by Capt. Fayrer. In one instance four individuals were taken at the same time adhering to sea-weed (Fuci) after it had been thrown ashore for manure. Dr. Johnston has met with this species on the coast of Berwickshire.

ÆQUOREAL PIPE-FISH. Syngnathus æquoreus, Linn. I have been favoured with a beautiful and perfect specimen of this fish, 20 inches in length, and which, along with a still larger one, was found dead on the beach near Ballantrae in the summer of 1838. In this specimen, as in the last I noticed, (Ann. Nat. Hist.), a caudal fin, though very minute, little more than half a line in length, is distinctly visible to the naked eye; under the lens five rays are very apparent.

THE WORM PIPE-FISH. Syngnathus lumbriciformis, Jenyns., has been procured at Portpatrick, and thence kindly sent me by Capt. Fayrer. This species, and the S. æquoreus have been obtained on the eastern coast of Scotland, near Berwick-on-Tweed, by Dr. Johnston; but to Dr. Parnell, who has so successfully investigated the Ichthyology of the Frith of Forth and other portions of the British coast, neither they nor the Liparis Montagui have occurred.

EIGHT-ARMED CUTTLE. Octopus octopodia, Flem. Br. Anim.' Penn. Brit. Zool.' vol. iv. p. 44, pl. 28, fig. 44. A

1 See Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837, p. 159.

1 Here the first British specimen of the Syng. æquoreus on record, was obtained by Sir Robert Sibbald.