298 HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



are "composed of a black mud, which is brought from a few 

 inches below the white sand, and are built in the form of an 

 imperfect cone, or bell-shaped, having their tops rounded. 

 These nests are generally about four or five feet high." 

 (Smeathman.) Other nests are built in the form of a mush- 

 room. 



The most elaborate architectural works, perhaps, under- 

 taken by any insects are the nests of the Termes bellicosus, 

 observed by Smeathman. Our figure (from Figuier, after 

 Smeathman) will give an idea of the nest and its interior, 

 with the Termes family grouped in the foreground. Smeath- 

 man, a traveller in Guinea, who published his account of 

 these insects in 1781, claims, and we think with reason, that 

 "the Termites resemble the ants also in their provident and 

 diligent labor, but surpass them, as well as the bees, wasps, 

 beavers and all other animals which I have ever heard of, in 

 the arts of building, as much as the Europeans excel the 

 least cultivated among the savages. It is more than prob- 

 able they excel them as much in sagacity and the arts of 

 government ; it is certain they show more substantial in- 

 stances of their ingenuity and industry than au}^ other ani- 

 mals ; and do in fact lay up vast magazines of provisions 

 and other stores ; a degree of prudence which has of late 

 years been denied, perhaps without reason, to the ants." 



The nests or "termitary" of this white ant are more or 

 less conical or sugar-loaf-shaped, rising from ten to twelve 

 feet above the surface of the ground. Indeed, they are said 

 to be still higher by Jobson in his "History of Gambia," 

 quoted by Smeathman as follows: "The Ant hills are re- 

 markable cast up in those parts by Pismires, some of them 

 twenty foot in height, of corapasse to contayne a dozen 

 men, with the heat of the sun baked into that hardnesse, 

 that we used to hide ourselves in the ragged tops of them, 

 when we took up stands to shoot at deere or wild beasts." 

 (Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii, p. 1570.) Smeathman tells us 



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