leries under the hills being thus large, since they are the great thoroughfares for all the labourers and soldiers going forth or returning, whether fetching clay, wood, water or provisions; and they are certainly well calculated for the purposes to which they are applied, by the spiral slope which is given them; for if they were perpendicular, the labourers would not be able to carry on their building with so much facility, as they ascend a perpendicular with great difficulty, and the soldiers can scarcely do it at all. It is on this account that sometimes a road like a ledge is made on the perpendicular side of any part of the building within their hill, which is flat on the upper surface, and half an inch wide, and ascends gradually like a staircase, or like those winding roads which are cut on the sides of hills and mountains, that would otherwise be inaccessible; by which and similar contrivances they travel with great facility to every interior part.

This, too, is probably the cause of their building a kind of bridge of one great arch, which answers the purpose of a flight of stairs from the floor of the area to some opening on the side of one of the columns that support the great arches. This contrivance must shorten the distance exceedingly to those labourers who have the eggs to carry from the royal chamber to some of the upper nurseries, which in some hills would be four or five feet in the straightest line, and much more.if carried through all the winding passages leading through the inner chambers and apartments. Mr. Smeathman found one of these bridges, half an inch broad, a quarter of an inch thick, and ten inches long, making the side of an elliptic arch of proportionable size; so that it is wonderful it did not fall over, or break by its own weight before they got it joined to the side of the column above.

upper surface, either made purposely for the inhaand had a hollow or groove all the length of the It was strengthened by a small arch at the bottom,

a, A covered way and nest, on the branch of a tree, of the Termites arborum. b, Section of the Hill-nest of the Termites bellicosi, to show the interior. c, Hill-nest of the Termites bellicost, entire.

bitants to travel over with more safety, or else, which is not improbable, worn by frequent treading

TURRET-BUILDING WHITE ANTS,

c.

Apparently more than one species, smaller than the preceding, such as the Termes mordax and T. atrox of Smeathman, construct nests of a very different form, the figures of which resemble a pillar, with a large mushroom for a capital. These turrets are composed of well-tempered black earth, and stand nearly three feet high. The conical mushroom-shaped roof is composed of the same material, and the brims hang over the column, being three or four inches wider than its perpendicular sides. Most of them, says Smeathman, resemble in shape the body of a round windmill, but some of the roofs have little elevation in the middle. When one of these turrets is completed, the insects do not afterwards enlarge or alter it; but if it be found too small

for them, they lay the foundation of another at a few inches' distance. They sometimes, but not often, begin the second before the first is finished, and a third before they have completed the second. Five or six of these singular turrets in a group may be seen in the thick woods at the foot of a tree. They are so very strongly built, that, in case of violence, they will sooner tear up the gravel and solid heart of their foundation than break in the middle. When any of them happen to be thus thrown down, the insects do not abandon them: but, using their overturned column as a basis, they run up another perpendicularly from it, to the usual height, fastening the under part at the same time to the ground, to render it the more secure.

The interior of a turret is pretty equally divided into innumerable cells, irregular in shape, but usually more or less angular, generally quadrangular or pentagonal, though the angles are not well defined. Each shell has at least two entrances; but there are no galleries, arches, nor wooden nurseries, as in the nests of the warrior (T. bellicosus). The two species which build turret-nests are very different in size, and the dimensions of the nests differ in proportion.

THE WHITE ANTS OF TREES.

Latreille's species of white ant (Termes lucifugus, Rossi), formerly mentioned as found in the south of Europe, appear to have more the habits of the jetant, described page 279, than their congeners of the tropics. They live in the interior of the trunks of trees, the wood of which they eat, and form their habitations of the galleries which they thus excavate. M. Latreille says they appear to be furnished with an acid for the purpose of softening the wood, the odour of which is exceedingly pungent. They prefer the

part of the wood nearest to the bark, which they are careful not to injure, as it affords them protection. All the walls of their galleries are moistened with small globules of a gelatinous substance, similar to gum-arabic. They are chiefly to be found in the trunks of oak and pine-trees, and are very numerous.*

Another of the species (Termes arborum), described by Smeathman, builds a nest on the exterior of trees, altogether different from any of the preceding. These are of a spherical or oval shape, occupying the arm or branch of a tree sometimes from seventy to eighty feet from the ground, and as large, in a few instances, as a sugar-cask. The composition used for a building material is apparently similar to that used by the warriors for constructing their nurseries, being the gnawings of wood in very small particles, kneaded into a paste with some species of cement or glue, procured, as Smeathman supposes, partly from gummiferous trees, and partly from themselves; but it is more probable, we think, that it is wholly secreted, like the wax of bees, by the insects themselves. With this cement, whatever may be its composition, they construct their cells, in which there is nothing very wonderful except their great numbers. They are very firmly built, and so strongly attached to the trees, that they will resist the most violent tornado. It is impossible, indeed, to detach them, except by cutting them in pieces, or sawing off the branch, which is frequently done to procure the insects for young turkeys. (See engraving, p. 300, for a figure of this nest.)

This species very often, instead of selecting the bough of a tree, builds in the roof or wall of a house, and unless observed in time and expelled, occasions considerable damage. It is casier, in fact, to shut

*Latreille, Hist. Nat. Générale, tom. xiii. p. 64.