TERMITES. 205 



are necessary. These apartments are joined by the maga- 

 zines and nurseries. The magazines are chambers of clay 

 and are at all times well stored with provisions, which, to the 

 naked eye, seem to consist of the raspings of wood and plants 

 which the termites destroy ; but, when examined by the mi- 

 croscope, they are found to consist chiefly of the gums or in- 

 spissated juices of plants, thrown together in small irregular 

 masses. Of these masses, some are finer than others, and 

 resemble the sugar about preserved fruits ; others resemble 

 the tears of gum, one being quite transparent, another like 

 amber, a third brown, and a fourth perfectly opaque. 



The magazines are always intermixed with the nurseries, 

 which last are buildings totally different from the rest of the 

 apartments. They are composed entirely of wooden mate- 

 rials, which seem to be cemented with gums. Mr. Smeath- 

 rnan very properly gives them the appellation of nurseries; 

 because they are invariably occupied by the eggs, and the 

 young ones, which first appear in the shape of laborers ; but 

 they are as white as snow. These buildings are exceedingly 

 compact, and are divided into a number of small, irregularly- 

 shaped chambers, not one of which is half an inch wide. 

 They are placed all round, and as near as possible to the 

 royal apartments. 



When a nest or hillock is in the infant state, the nurseries 

 are close to the royal apartment. But as, in process of time, 

 the body of the queen enlarges, it becomes necessary, for her 

 accommodation, to augment the dimensions of her chamber. 

 She then, likewise, lays a greater number of eggs, and re- 

 quires more attendants ; of course, it is necessary that both 

 the number and dimensions of the adjacent apartments should 

 be augmented. For this purpose, the small, first-built nurse- 

 ries are taken to pieces, rebuilt a little farther off, made a 

 size larger, and their number, at the same time, is increased. 

 Thus the animals are continually employed in pulling down, 

 repairing, or rebuilding their apartments ; and these opera- 

 tions they perform with wonderful sagacity, regularity, and 

 foresight. 



One remarkable circumstance regarding the nurseries must 

 not be omitted. They are always slightly overgrown with a 

 kind of mould, and plentifully sprinkled with white globules 

 about the size of a small pin's head. These globules Mr. 

 Smeathman at first conjectured to be the eggs ; but when 

 examined by the microscope, they evidently appeared to be a 

 species of mushroom, in shape resembling our eatable mush- 

 18 



