TERMES. 
435 
of the abdomen, while the intervals between them 
are covered with a thin, delicate, transparent skin, 
and appear of a fine cream colour, a little shaded 
by the dark colour of the intestines and w atery 
fluid seen here and there beneath. I conjecture 
the animal is upwards of tw^o years old when the 
abdomen is increased to three inches in length: I 
have sometimes found them of near twice that size. 
The abdomen is now of an irregular oblong shape, 
being contracted by the muscles of every segment, 
and is become one vast matrix full of eggs, which 
make long circumvolutions through an innumer- 
able quantity of very minute vessels that circulate 
round tlie inside in a serpentine manner, which 
would exercise the ingenuity of a skilful anatomist 
to dissect and develope. This singular matrix is 
not more remarkable for its amazing extension 
and size than for its peristaltic motion, which re- 
sembles the undulating of weaves, and continues 
incessantly wdthout any apparent effort of the ani- 
mal; so that one part or other alternately is rising 
and sinking in perpetual succession, and the ma- 
trix seems never at rest, but is always protruding 
eggs to the amount (as I have frequently counted 
in old queens) of sixty in a minute, or eighty 
tiiousand and upward in one day of twenty -four 
hours. 
“ These eggs are instantly taken from her body 
by her attendants (of whom there always are, in 
the royal chamber and the galleries adjacent, a 
sufiicient number in waiting) and carried to the 
nurseries, wdiich in a great nest may some of them 
