424 AUSTRALIAN TEIUIITID^E, 



headed termites' tall nests; they are generally scattered over the 

 northern districts of New South Wales and southern Queensland. 

 North of Rockhampton they begin to be noticeable as a pest, 

 though the large nests are not very common; from Mackay I 

 have at least five species; towards Townsville they increase in 

 numbers, and about Charters Towers and northward are a very 

 serious trouble. It is only here and there, however, that the 

 large mound nests appear; but the arboreal nesting Entermes, 

 though not always building on the trees, seem to be found all 

 over the country. From Cooktown and all over Cape York the 

 nests are large and numerous; the magnetic nest so well-known 

 in Port Darwin l)eing found on the Bloomfield River, north of 

 Cooktown."^ 



At Somerset (Cape York), there is one of the most remarkable 

 termite cities in the world; viewed from the sea, and looking up 

 beyond the old Government Residency, now occujDied by Mr. 

 Frank Jardine's homestead, it aj^pears as if the plain for a mile 

 or more in extent is covered with pointed pillars six or seven feet 

 in height, broad at the base and tapering to the summit, forming 

 regular symmetrical pyramids. They are thickly dotted over the 

 plain, often only a few yards apart; the effect is much heightened 

 if the grass has been freshly burnt off, as it had been the lirst 

 time I passed Somerset. 



Several writers have noticed this city of the termites. 

 Moseleyt likens them to kiln chimneys; he says that it gives the 

 country the appearance of a pottery district in miniature, and 

 states that many of them are ten feet high. D'Albertis,! writing 

 of this place, says: — "Termite nests, both on the hills and plains, 

 measured often ten feet in height and thirteen feet in circum- 

 ference at the base"; he found upon opening them that many were 

 attacked and often almost exterminated by large black ants. 



* D. Le Soeuf. A visit to the Bloomfield River. Victorian Naturalist, 

 Vol xxi. 1894, p. 25. 



+ H. N. Moseley, 1. c. p. 302. 

 + D'Albertis, I.e. p. 229, Vol. i. 



