HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 513 



kibyrinth of innumerable arched rooms of different 

 shapes and sizes, either opening into each other or com- 

 municating by common passages, and intended for the 

 accommodation of the soldiers and attendants, of whom 

 many thousands are always in waiting on their royal 

 master and mistress. Next to the royal apartments 

 come the nurseries and the magazines. The former are 

 invariably occupied by the eggs and young ones, and in 

 the infant state of the nest are placed close to the royal 

 chamber ; but when the queen's augmented size re- 

 quires a larger apartment, as well as additional rooms 

 for the increased number of attendants wanted to re- 

 move her eggs, the small nurseries are taken to pieces, 

 rebuilt at a greater distance a size bigger, and their 

 number increased at the same time. In substance they 

 differ from all the other apartments, being formed of par- 

 ticles of wood apparently joined together with gums. A 

 collection of these compact, irregular, and small wooden 

 chambers, not one of which is half an inch in width, is 

 inclosed in a common chamber of clay sometimes as big 

 as a child's head. — Intermixed with the nurseries lie 

 the magazines, which are chambers of clay always well 

 stored with provisions, consisting of particles of wood, 

 gums, and the inspissated juices of plants. 



These magazines and nurseries, separated by small 

 empty chambers and galleries, which run round them 

 or communicate from one to the other, are continued 

 on all sides to the outer wall of the building, and reach 

 up within it two-thirds or three-fourths of its height. 

 They do not, however, fill up the whole of the lower 

 part of the hill, but are confined to the sides, leaving 

 an open area in the middle, under the dome, very much 



VOL. I. 2l 



