BY WALTER W. FROGGATT. 437 



reputed termite-proof, but I hav^e a portion of a plank, received 

 from Mr. C. French, of Melbourne, which has been half consumed 

 by them. The Leichhardt tree of Queensland is also quoted, 

 but at Dalrymple, N.Q., I ha^'e seen large logs taken out of an 

 old house riddled with their holes. About Sydne}^ when attacking 

 houses they will seldom touch red wood if there is any clear pine. 

 I have seen a piece of red wood that was nailed to a clear pine 

 board, the latter being only a shell while the former was only 

 slightly grooved by them on the outer surface. 



I have noticed that about the neighbourhood of Croydon 

 while nearly every old hardwood fence shows their ravages more 

 or less, they seldom seem to attack soft wood picket fences. But 

 the hardness of wood is no impediment to them. They show 

 a marked preference for the stumps and logs of dead Eucalypts over 

 those of wattle, Casuarina, and the smaller forest trees. Near 

 Hornsby I found them at work on the trunk of a large dead 

 white gum that was as hard and solid as bell metal; they had 

 come up from the ground beneath the roots and just below the 

 surface, boring straight into the w^ood and then turning upwards, 

 cutting a clean cylindrical tunnel a quarter of an inch in diameter. 

 It is therefore not surprising that the}'' sometimes gnaw holes in 

 sheet lead, which is much softer than many woods attacked by them. 



White ants are in many instances introduced into buildings in 

 the city and suburbs by means of fire- wood; during this last 

 season I have exhumed three large family parties, containing 

 enough soldiers, workers and immature winged specimens to found 

 a very respectable colony; these insects would remain in the log 

 probably until the early jDart of the summer and then migrate to 

 more roomy quarters. They will live for several months in a 

 tightly closed up tin or tube without any further attention, and 

 though they cannot live more than two hours in sea water and a 

 little longer in fresh, yet in the heart of a dead log they might 

 float or drift a considerable distance without l^eing destroyed. 



In conclusion, I must tender my thanks to the following cor- 

 respondents : — Messrs. G. McD. Adamson, of Uralla; Norman 

 Ethridge, Colo Yale; F. B. Miller, Moree; S. Russell, Bowral; H. 

 Eumsey, Barber's Creek; J. Mitchell, Narellan; and my father 



