136 THE TERMITES. 



ards of this species, but I never saw a second bird that at- 

 tained more than two thirds of the weight just specified; 

 usually they do not exceed fourteen or fifteen pounds. The 

 flesh is very tender and palatable ; indeed, to my notion, it 

 is the best-flavored of all the game-birds found throughout 

 this portion of South Africa. 



It being now the breeding season, the numerous flocks of 

 Guinea-fowls in the neighborhood afforded us a constant sup- 

 ply of fresh eggs, which, as has been said elsewhere, are ex- 

 cellent. 



Schmelen's Hope swarmed with termites, or white ants.* 

 My ideas of ant-hills were here, for the first time, realized ; 

 for some of the abodes of this interesting though destructive 

 insect measured as much as one hundred feet in circumfer- 

 ence at the base, and rose to about twenty in height ! Ter- 

 mites are seldom seen in the daytime ; but it is not an unu- 

 sual thing, after having passed a night on the ground, to find 

 skins, rugs, &c., perforated by them in a hundred different 

 places. 



In constructing their nests, the termites do not add to them 

 externally, as with the species of ant common to England, 

 Ijut enlarge them from within by thrusting out, so to say, 

 the wall. Their labors are commonly carried on in the 

 dark, and at early morn each night's addition to the build- 

 ing m^y be discovered by its moisture. " They unite," says 

 the "English Cyclopaedia," "in societies composed each of 

 an immense number of individuals, living in the ground and / 

 in trees, and often attacking the wood-work of houses, in 

 which they form innumerable galleries, all of which lead to a 

 central point. In forming these galleries they avoid piercing 

 the surface of the wood-work, and hence it appears sound, 

 when the sliofhtest touch is sometimes sufficient to cause it to 



* For a detailed account of this curious and interesting insect, see 

 Mr. Westwood {Brlfi>^h Cijchpaidid) ; Mr. Savage {Annals of Natural 

 Jlistorij, vol. v., ]). C2), &:c. 



