OPENING AN ANT-HILL. 4a 



motions express terror and rage, and they bite 

 fiercely every thing within reach. By striking their 

 forceps against the nest, they make a ticking kind 

 of noise, which the labourers seem to understand, as 

 they generally reply to it by hissing. After some 

 time, if all is quiet, the fighters retire into the nest ; 

 and the working insects fill up the chasm with fresh 

 mortar, working with great regularity and dispatch. 

 The soldiers have, by this time, disappeared, ex- 

 cept here and there one, in the midst of several 

 hundred labourers, who seems to overlook their 

 work and hasten their operations by a stroke with 

 his forceps, though he never assists them in their 

 labour. 



On renewing the attack, the same scene is repeat- 

 ed : but it is remarkable, that each class adheres to 

 its own instincts ; for, let the emergency be ever so 

 great, the one order never attempts to fight, or the- 

 other to work. 



Mr. Smeathman relates, that, as he was one day 

 on a shooting expedition, he perceived a numerous 

 body of a very large species of termites, that issued 

 out of a hole, and marched rapidly forward, in two 

 parties, chiefly composed of the working insects; 

 though they were attended by soldiers scattered 

 among them, as if to keep them in order. During 

 their march, which seems to have continued some 



