96 



The White Ant. 



The wryneck is a very peculiar bird, 

 feeding principally on ants. Instinctively 

 trusting to the close resemblance of its 

 tints to the situations on which it alights, 

 it will lie close, and sometimes even suffer 

 itself to be taken by the hand, or on such 

 occasions will twirl its neck in the most ex- 

 traordinary manner, rolling the eyes, and 

 erecting the feathers on the crown and 

 throat, occasionally raising the tail and per- 

 forming the most ludicrous movements, 



then, taking advantage of the surprise of 

 the spectator, will suddenly dart off like an 

 arrow. 



The nuthatches, which feed largely on 

 various seeds, are celebrated for the instinct 

 of fixing a nut in a chink while they pierce 

 it with the bill, swinging the whole body 

 as upon a pivot, to give effect to each 

 stroke. These birds lay up stores of food 

 like the tits. Their note is remarkably 

 loud, and disposition fearless. 



George B. Griffith. 



THE WHITE ANT 



ONE of the very earliest and most im- 

 portant of the earth builders was 

 the white ant; his remains have been found 

 in carboniferous strata, which was ages be- 

 fore the black ants appeared. Both in their 

 social organization and in the structure of 

 their buildings the white ants of India or 

 of Africa to-day may differ widely from 

 their earliest ancestors. The experience of 

 countless ages and the frequent change of 

 the conditions to which they have been 

 subjected cannot have been without its in- 

 fluence on creatures of so high an order of 

 intelligence, but in the character of the work 

 they perform there has been no change. 



Through all the ages the white ants have 

 existed everywhere in the forests of warm 

 countries, and have faithfully performed 

 the very important world's work of eating 

 up the trees — trunk, bark and branches— as 

 fast as they died, and converting them into 

 soil for the support of richer vegetation. 



The white ants are found in the forests 

 of North America, but not in great num- 

 bers. The work of eating up the dead 

 timber is here shared by many other insects 

 and their grubs; but in the forests of India 

 and Africa and other tropical countries the 

 work is performed principally by white 

 ants, which are still so numerous that not a 

 particle of timber is allowed to go to decay. 



They eat everything. In the early spring, 

 as soon as the outer bark of the trees be- 

 gins to crack and dry up, every trunk shows 

 traces of the white ants which are busy 

 eating the dry bark, and leaving in its place 

 a granular earthy shell which peals or crum- 

 bles off in the course of a week or two, 

 leaving the trees looking as neat and clean 

 as a new pin. If a branch is decayed the 

 white ants find it, enter it generally at the 

 end, eat galleries through it first, and then 

 clear out all the inside, leaving a shell, 

 which soon gets blown down by the wind. 

 If the decay penetrates into the heart of 

 the tree the white ants follow it, and eat 

 the heart of the tree down to the roots. 

 I have had scores of trees cut down — trees 

 of twelve feet and more in girth — but mere 

 shells of sapwood six or eight inches thick. 

 The white ants had eaten all the heart. 



If a tree falls in the forest the white ants 

 just wait until the sap ceases to circulate 

 before they commence to pass it through 

 their little systems. Months may pass by 

 and the fallen trunk look unchanged, but 

 the white ants are boring away in all direc- 

 tions inside, and in a year or two there is 

 only a little ridge to mark where the trunk 

 lay — the timber has all been eaten and con- 

 verted into a ridge of fine mould, which 

 soon mingles with the soil. This is a very 



