th their anterior paws, and then cut off the ear with their teeth.
This done, they set about thrashing their wheat--that is to say, they
separate the grain from the straw by turning the ear round and round
between their paws. When the grains come out they pile them up in
their cheeks, and thus transport them to one of the chambers already
mentioned; they then return to exploit the field and continue these
labours until they have completed the stores for winter.

A certain Vole (_Arvicola economus_) acts in much the same way as the
Hamster, though he harvests a different class of objects. It is not
wheat which he collects but roots. He has to find these roots, to dig
them up, to cut them into fragments of suitable dimensions for
transport, and finally to pile them up in rooms disposed to receive
them. This species, which inhabits Siberia, measures about twelve
centimetres in length, but during summer and autumn Voles accomplish
an amount of work which is surprising having regard to their size. The
moment having arrived to think about winter, the Voles spread
themselves about the steppe. Each hollows little pits around the roots
he wishes to extract. After having bared them he cleans them while
still in position, so as not to encumber his storehouses with useless
earth. This preparatory labour having been completed, he divides the
root into slices of a weight proportioned to his strength, and carries
away the fragments one by one. Seizing each with his teeth, he walks
backwards drawing it after him, and thus traverses a long road,
crossing paths, going round tufts of grass or other obstacles, not
letting himself be rebuffed by the difficulty and length of the task.
Arrived at his hole, he enters this also backwards, drawing his burden
through all his galleries. His dwelling, though the entrance is rather
more complicated, resembles that of the Hamster. Like the latter, it
is composed of a central room placed in communication with the outside
by a maze of passages, which cross one another. That is the
sleeping-room, the walls of which are well formed, and which is
carpeted with hay. From this various underground passages start which
lead to the storerooms, which are three or four in number. It is to
these that the Vole bears his harvest. Each compartment is large
enough to contain four or five kilogrammes of roots, so that the
little rodent finds himself at the end of the season the proprietor of
about fifteen kilogrammes