The coquallin is much larger than the squirrel; _in duplam fere crescit magnitudinem_, says Fernandes. It is a pretty animal, and very remarkable for its colours; its belly is of a fine yellow, and its head as well as body variegated with white, black, brown and orange. It covers its back with its tail like the squirrel; but has not, like that animal, small brushes of hair at the tips of the ears: he never climbs up trees, but dwells in holes under the roots of trees, like the ground squirrel, where it brings forth its young; it likewise stores up corn and fruit to feed on during winter; it is a jealous and cunning animal, and so wild that it is impossible to be tamed. The coquallin is only found in the southern parts of America. The white and orange-coloured squirrels of the East Indies are much smaller, and their colours are uniform. Those are true squirrels which dwell and produce their young on trees; but the coquallin, and the American ground squirrel, burrow under ground like rabbits, and have no other affinity to squirrels than their resemblance in form. _Engraved for Barr's Buffon_ [Illustration: FIG. 170. _Hamster._ FIG. 171. _Bobak._] [Illustration: FIG. 172. _Ichneumon._] THE HAMSTER. The Hamster (_fig. 170._) is the most famous and the most destructive rat that exists. The reason why we did not give its history among the other rats was because, at that time we had not been able to procure one of them; and we are now indebted for the knowledge we have acquired of it to the Marquis de Montmirail and M. de Waitz, who has sent us two living hamsters with an instructive memoir on their manners and natural habits. We fed one of these animals for many months, for the purpose of examining it with attention, and afterwards dissected it, in order to compare its internal structure with that of other rats, and observed, that in its interior parts it resembled more the water rat than any other animal; it resembled him also by the smallness of its eyes and the fineness of its hair; but its tail, instead of being long, is much shorter than that of the short-tailed field mouse, which, as we have already observed, greatly resembles the water-rat in its internal conformation. All these animals live under the earth, and seem to be animated with the same instinct. They have nearly the same habits, and particularly that of collecting corn, &c. and making great magazines in their holes: we shall, therefore, dwell much less on the resemblances of shape and dispositions, than upon differences which distinguished the hamster from all the other rats and mice, and field-mice, we have already spoken of.