Popular SBirtianarg of 8mmatra $aturr. 673 



of which in a large nest may he four or five 

 feet distant, in a straight line, and conse- 

 quently much farther by their winding gal- 

 leries. Here, after they are hutched, the 

 yjung are attended and provided with every 

 tiling necessary, until they are able to shift 

 fur themselves, and take their share of the 

 labours of the community. 



When a person accidentally enters any 

 solitary grove, where the ground is pretty 

 | well covered with their arched galleries, the 

 ; Termites give the alarm by loud hissings, 

 i which may be distinctly heard at every 

 j step : soon after this, their galleries may be 

 searched in vain for the insects ; but little 

 1 holes are found, just large enough to admit 

 of their escape into the subterraneous roads. 

 These galleries are of sufficient size to allow 

 the Termites to pass and repass without 

 stopping each other (though there are always 

 numerous passengers), and to shelter them 

 equally from light and air, aa well as from 

 their enemies, of which the Ants, from 

 being the most numerous, are the most for- 

 midable. If the Termites are dislodged from 

 ! their covered ways, the various species of Ants 

 I (which are probably as numerous above 

 | ground as the Termites are in their subter- 

 | rancan passages) instantly seize and drag 

 ! them away to their nests, to feed their young 

 I brood. The Termites are, therefore, exceed- 

 ; ingly solicitous about preserving their co- 

 i vered ways in good repair j and if one of 

 | these be demolished for a few inches in 

 length, it is wonderful how soon they will 

 rebuild it. At first, in their hurry, they ruii 

 into the open part an inch or two, but stop 

 ' so suddenly that it is evident they are sur- 

 prised ; for though some will run straight 

 on, and get under the further part of the 

 arch as quickly as possible, most of them 

 run back as fast, and very few will venture 

 through that part of the gallery which is 

 left uncovered. In a few minutes they may 

 be seen rebuilding the arch ; and even if 

 three or four yards of their gallery have been 

 destroyed, it will be restored by the next 

 morning, and will be found to contain nu- 

 merous Termites passing along in both di- 

 rections. If the gallery be several times 

 destroyed, they will at length seem to give 

 up the point, and build another in a different 

 direction ; but if the old one led to some 

 favourite plunder, they will rebuild it again 

 in a few days ; and unless the nest be de- 

 stroyed, they will never totally abandon 

 their gallery. 



The Termites generally make their ap- 

 proaches to the nest under ground, descend- 

 ing below the foundations of houses and 

 stores at several feet from the surface, and 

 rising again either in the floors, or entering 

 at the bottoms of the posts of which the sides 

 of the buildings are composed, following the 

 course of the fibres to the top, and having 

 lateral perforations or cavities here and 

 there. While some of them are employed 

 in gutting the posts, others ascend from 

 them, entering a rafter or some other part of 

 the roof, in search, as it would seem, of the 

 thatch, which appears to be their favourite 

 food ; and if they find it, they bring up wet 

 clay, and build galleries through the roof in 



various directions, as long as it will support 

 them. In this manner a wooden house is 

 speedily destroyed ; and all that it contains 

 is, at the same time, subjected to the ravages 

 of these destructive insects. In carrying on 

 this business, they sometimes find, by some 

 means or other, that the post has a certain 

 weight to support, and then, if it is a con- 

 venient track to the roof, or is itself a kind 

 of wood agreeable to them, they bring their 

 mortar ; and, as fast as they take away the 

 wood, replace the vacancy with that ma- 

 terial, which they work together more closely 

 and compactly than human strength or art 

 could ram it. Hence, when the house is 

 taken to pieces, in order to examine if any 

 of the posts are fit to be used again, those 

 made of the softer kinds of wood are often 

 found reduced almost to a shell ; and al- 

 most all of them are transformed from wood 

 to clay, as solid and as hard as many kinds 

 of stune that it used for the purposes of 

 building. 



Another African species (Tennes arbo- 

 rum) builds its nest among the branches of 

 trees, sometimes at the height of sixty or 

 eighty feet from the ground. They also fre- 

 quently establish their nests within the roofs 

 and other parts of houses, to which they do 

 considerable damage if not timely extirpated. 

 They are not, however, so destructive or so 

 difficult to be guarded against as the species 

 we have been so minutely describing. 



TERN. (Sterna.) A genus of web-footed 

 birds readily distinguished by the great 

 length of their wings and their forked tail, 

 as well as by the form of their beak. Their 

 nourishment consists almost exclusively of 

 small live fishes, which they seize upon while 

 on the wing, descending like a shot to the 

 water, and capturing their prey. They are 

 pretty generally diffused over the globe, and 

 are abundant in the temperate regions. 

 There arc several species. 



The COMMOX TURN, GREAT TEBX, or 

 SEA-SWALLOW. (Sterna hirundo.) Tliis 

 bird is upwards of fourteen inches in length : 

 the bill is crimson, tipped with black, and 

 about two inches and a quarter long ; the 

 forehead, top of the head, and the long occi- 

 pital feathers are deep black ; the hinder 

 port of the neck, the back, and wings, are 

 bluish-ash : the under parts are pure white, 

 the breast excepted, which is slightly shaded : 

 the tail, which is long and greatly forked, is 

 white, except the two outside feathers, which 

 ore black on their exterior webs ; the legs 

 and feet are red. This clean-looking pretty 

 bird is common in the summer months on 

 the sea-coasts, rivers, and lakes of the British 

 isles, and is also met with in various parts of 

 Europe and Asia. The female forms her 

 nest in the moss or long coarse gross, near 

 the lake, and lays three or four eggs of a 

 dull olive, marked with different sized black 

 spots at the thicker end. It is a bold bird, 

 and during the period of incubation will 

 attack any person approaching too near its 

 nest. 



" The flight of the Great Tern," says Wil- 

 son, " and, indeed, of the whole tribe, is not 

 in the sw eeping, shooting manner of the land 



3 M 



