606 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



ia iron pots over a gentle fire, stirring them about as is done in roasting coflee, and 

 eaten by liandfuls, without sauce or any other addition, as we do comfits. According 

 to Smeathman, they resemble in taste sugared cream, or sweet almond paste, and are, 

 at the same time, so nutritious, that the Hindoos use them as a restorative for debil- 

 itated patients. 



While most termites live and work entirely under covered galleries, the Marching 

 Termite {T. viarum) exposes itself to the day. Mr. Smeathman on one occasion, 

 while passing through a dense forest, suddenly heard a loud hiss like that of a ser- 

 pent ; another followed, and struck him with alarm ; but a moment's reflection led 

 him to conclude that these sounds proceeded from white ants, although he could not 

 see any of their huts around. On following this noise, however, he was struck with 

 surprise and pleasure at perceiving an army of those creatures emerging from a hole 

 in the ground, and marching with the utmost swiftness. Having proceeded about a 

 yard, this immense host divided into two columns, chiefly composed of laborers, about 

 fifteen abreast, following each other in close order, and going straight forward. Here 

 and there was seen a soldier, at a distance of a foot or two from the columns ; many 

 other soldiers were to be seen, standing still or passing about, as if upon the look-out 

 lest souie enemy should suddenly surprise their unwarlike comrades. But the most 

 extraordinary and amusing part of the scene was exhibited by some other soldiers, who 

 having mounted some plants, ten or fifteen inches from the ground, hung over the 

 army marching below, and by striking their jaws upon the leaves at certain intervals, 

 produced the noise above mentioned ; to this signal the whole army immediately re- 

 turned a hiss, and increased their pace. The soldiers at these signal-stations sat quit© 

 still during these intervals of silence, except now and then making a slight turn of 

 the head, and seemed as solicitous to keep their posts as regular sentinels. After 

 marching separately for twelve or fifteen paces, the two columns of this army again 

 united, and then descended into the earth by two or three holes. Mr. Smeathman 

 watched them for more than an hour, without perceiving any increase or diminution (5f 

 their numbers. 



1^ 



Here, although quite out of place in a scientific point of view, we may introduce a 

 few paragraplis respecting a class of animals known as Ant-eaters, and the modes in 

 which they manage to secure their prey. 



The great Ant-bear is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary denizens of the 

 wilds of South America ; for that a powerful animal, measuring above six feet from 

 the snout to the end of the tail, should live exclusively on ants, seems scarcely less 

 remarkable tlian that the whale nourishes his enormous body with minute pteropods 

 and medusae. 



The vast mouth of the leviathan of the seas has been most admirably adapted to his 

 peculiar food, and it was not in vain that Nature gave such colossal dimensions to his 

 head, as it was necessary to find room for a gigantic straining apparatus, in which, on 

 rejecting the engulphed water, thousands upon thousands of his tiny prey miglit 

 remain entangled ; but the ant-bear has been no less wonderfully armed for the cap- 

 ture of the minute animals on which he feeds; and if, on considering the use for 

 which it was ordained, we become reconciled to the seeming disproportion of the 

 whale's jaws, the small and elongated snout-like head of the ant-bear will also appear 



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