HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 507 



dax] construct upon the ground a cylindrical turret of 

 clay about three quarters of a yard high, surrounded by 

 a projecting conical roof, so .as in shape considerably to 

 resemble a mushroom, and composed interiorly of in- 

 numerable cells of various figures and dimensions. 

 Others (as T. Destructor, T. Arborum, Sm.) prefer a 

 more elevated site, and build their nests, which are of 

 different sizes, from that of a hat to that of a sugar-cask, 

 and composed of pieces of wood glued together, amongst 

 the branches of trees often seventy or eighty feet high. 

 But by far the most curious habitations, and to which, 

 therefore, I shall confine a minute description, are those 

 formed by the Termes fatal is, a species very common in 

 Guinea and other parts of the coast of Africa, of whose 

 proceedings we have a very particular and interesting 

 account in the 71st volume of the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, from the pen of Mr. Smeathman. 



These nests are formed entirely of clay, and are ge- 

 nerally twelve feet high and broad in proportion, so that 

 when a cluster of them, as is often the case, are placed 

 together, they may be taken for an Indian village, and 

 are in fact sometimes larger than the huts which the na- 

 tives inhabit. *The first process in the erection of these 

 singular structures, is the elevation of two or three tur- 

 rets of clay about a foot high, and in shape like a sugar- 

 loaf. These, which seem to be the scaffolds of the future 

 building, rapidly increase in number and height, until 

 at length being widened at the base, joined at the top 

 into one dome, and consolidated all round into a thick 

 wall of clay, they form a building of the size above men- 

 tioned, and of the shape of a hay-cock, which when 

 clothed, as it generally soon becomes, with a coating of 



