38 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF IMSECTS. 



they have to travel over a rock or up a tree, they vault 

 with a coping- of earth the route they mean to pursue, 

 and they form subterranean paths and tunnels, some 

 of a diameter wider than the bore of a large cannon, on 

 all sides from their habitation to their various objects 

 of attack; or which sloping down (for they cannot well 

 mount a surface quite perpendicular) penetrate to the 

 depth of three or four feet under their nests into the 

 earth, till they arrive at a soil proper to be used in the 

 erection of their buildings. Were they, indeed, to 

 expose themselves, the race would soon be annihilated 

 by their innumerable enemies. This circumstance has 

 deceived the author of the MS. account of those in 

 Ceylon, who, speaking of the nests of these insects iu 

 that island, which he describes as twelve feet high, ob- 

 serves, that " They may be considered as a large city, 

 which contains a great nvimber of houses, and these 



houses an infinite number of cells or apartments : 



these cells appear to me to connuunicate with each 

 other, but not the houses. I liave convinced myself, 

 by bringing together the broken walls of one of the ca- 

 vities of the nest or cone, that it does not communicate 

 with any other, nor zcifh the exterior of the cone — a 

 very curious circumstance, which I will not undertake 

 to explain. Other cavities communicate by a very 

 narrow tunnel." By not looking for subterranean 

 communications, he was probably led into this error. 



You have before heard of their diligence in buildin"-. 

 Does any accident liappen to their vaiious structures, 

 or are tliey dislodged from any of their covered ways, 

 they are still more active and expeditious in repairing. 

 Getting out of sight as soon as possible, — and they run 



