INSECTS. 



189 



broad side of one post into that of another joining to it ; but the}- prefer, and 

 always destroy, the sf uer substances first, and are particularly fond of pine 

 and fir boards, wh' .x they excavate and can; away with wonderful dis- 

 patch and astonishing cunning; for, except a shelf has something standing 

 upon it, as a book, or anything else which may tempt them, they will not 

 perforate the surface, but artfully preserve it whole, and eat away all the 

 inside except a few fibres, which barely keep the two sides connected 

 together, so that a piece of inch-board, which appears solid to the eye. wdl 

 not weigh more than two sheets of pasteboard of equal dimensions after 

 these animals have been a little while in possession." 



Most of the white ants live in subterranean burrows or in plants and 

 trees, but on the western coast of Africa there is a species which builds 

 enormous ant-hills, sometimes ten or twelve feet in height, and conical in 

 shape. The material is clay well worked by the mandibles, and so solidly 

 packed together that the hill will easily support the weight of a man or 

 even, it is said, of an ox. Inside there are numbers of chambers, reminding 

 one of the hills of true ants; in some are the stores of the colony — wood 

 comminuted, and formed into masses; inside of these are the nurseries 

 with the eggs and young; while in the centre is the royal chamber where 

 dwell the helpless king and queen. 



One species, occurring in Java, forms huge excrescences on the trunks of 

 trees. Says Mr. H. 0. Forbes, from whom we shall frequently have occa- 

 sion to quote: "It is worth while to break down a portion of their tough 

 w^rlls, to watch for half an hour the out-rush of the city guards, with their 

 pickelhaube heads, who, with elevated antennas, sniff round everywhere for 

 the cause of alarm, charging about frantically, and beating their spiked 

 frontlets against the walls in a most threatening way. till they think the 

 danger past, when they retire and order out hordes of builders to repair 

 the breaches, who, distinguished at once by the absence of a frontal spike, 

 have, till then, kept away from the scene. After a general survey of the 

 ruins, each worker retires to fetch a small squarish chip, carefully exam- 

 ines the exact place into which it is to be built ; then applying to that S] 

 the tip of its abdomen, it excretes a drop of a pale glutinous substance, 

 places in it the chip, and hammers it down by the 'combined application of 

 its maxillae and antennae. While the building is going on, a company 

 of soldiers stalk about the walls, guarding the workers, every now and then 

 tapping their heads with the conscious air of a constable reminding them 

 that his presence is their safety. Thus block after block, with amazing 

 rapidity, is cemented together, and the sewage of the colony is piled into 

 the odorless homogeneous walls of their dwelling." 



Says Dr. A. S. Packard : " Were we to select from among the insects a 



