Allison Bryce, age 12, of Barberton, Ohio

Where did the hamster originate?

Our pretty pet hamster is a native of Syria, He is the Golden Hamster six inches of fluffy fur, reddish brown above and creamy white below.  He is a great boarder and it is fun to watch him sit on his fat little haunches while using his tiny hands to stuff surplus food into his cheek pouches  However, if you happen to own a pet hamster, be sure to give him a home of his own  This is for your comfort as well as his  For he is very destructive and if given the freedom of the house, your mother and father may goon want to throw the little fallow out and maybe you along with him 

Give him a box about two feet square and cover its floor with dirt, sawdust or some other material which soaks up moisture  Make one spot deep enough for him to bury his food and keep him warm for he tends to doze in cold weather  If he has the run of the house, he will unstuff your favorite, cushion in the hope ,of finding grain‑‑bits‑of vegetables  He will dig a hole in the sofa with the idea of turning it into a storage pantry • and when he set s  his little mind to It, a hamster can really dig  and

The  pretty darling has a large number of ,cousins living around the world, though none of them are native  Americans  All of them are, members of the toothy rodent clan, cousins to the rats and the mica, They are  fat fellows with soft, silky coats  They are burrowers and neat  housekeepers and all of them are great boarders of  food  'There are small hamsters in Asia, some no bigger t  han,mi  ce  One pretty fellow  lives in Africa south of the equator, and  one very furry, fellow lives in, Siberia and changes to,a white coat during the snowy winter months 

The farmers of northern Europe are, pestored by a foot‑long hamster  who raids their crops.  Has home is a system of burrows with a whole series of pantries connected by passageways  This bandit prowls forth at night on fur‑soled feet .He gathers grain from the fields and stuffs it into his roomy cheek pouches  He digs up potatoes and totes them home in his front teeth. Time after tuna he sallies forth and returns with a load of loot from the farmers’ fields  The grain is neatly stored in one pantry, the potatoes in another, maybe a load of nuts in another and dried fruit in another 

All night long the little robber runs to and fro.  When dawn comes, he selects what he fancies from his neatly stored loot and sits down to breakfast, safely hidden below ground  This goes on through the summer and fall  When winter comes and food outdoors is scarce, the little robber is well supplied  He stays below ground dozing and waking up now and then to select a snack from the food hoarded in his various pantries 

 This little bandit is a serious pest and naturally we do not want him in America  However, all the hamsters tend to steal food and hoard it in hidden pantries ‑ which is why we do not allow our pet hamsters to run around freely. These darlings were imported from Syria in 1938 and have since taken over much of the laboratory work done by guinea pigs.  Apart from this good work, they have stolen many of our hearts with their charming ways,