SOCIAL LIFE OF ANIMALS 



91 



tenants to pass out if they would, a fortunate investigator 

 sometimes finds the royal pair. The male is sometimes 

 even larger than the soldier, and is in many ways different, 

 though by no means extraordinary. The queen-mother, 

 however, is a very strange organism. She measures two 

 to six inches, while the worker is only about a fifth of an 





FIG. 24. DIAGRAMMATIC SECTION OF NEST o: r TERMITES. 



(After Houssay.) 



In the walls there are winding passages (p) ; uppermost is a well- 

 aired empty attic (D); the next story (C) is a nursery where the young 

 termites are hatched on shelves (a) and (b) ; the next is a hall (B) sup- 

 ported by pillars ; beneath this is a royal chamber (r) in which the king 

 and queen are imprisoned ; around this the chambers of worker-termites 

 (s) and some store-chambers (m) ; excavated in the ground are holes 

 (c) out of which the material used in making the termitary was dug. 

 The whole structure is sometimes 10-15 feet in height. 



inch in length. Like her mate, she sees, and she once 

 had wings like his, but they have dropped off. The 

 hind part of the body is enormously distended with eggs, 

 and " the head bears about the same proportion to the 

 rest of the body as does the tuft on his Glengarry bonnet 

 to a six-foot Highlander." In her passivity and ' phe- 



