INSECT INTRUDERS. 



the rest-house. On following the black 

 stream for a short distance I came upon 

 a small bare broken patch of earth with 

 several small openings and cracks in it, 

 the total width of the broken area being 

 about four inches. Down these openings 

 and cracks my little friends, carrying 

 the grass seeds brought from a consid- 

 erable distance, for the nearest grass 

 jungle was a good hundred yards off, 

 were disappearing in a continuous stream 

 whilst fresh relays of workers were is- 

 suing and hurrying back along that black 

 stream. 



With a pointed stick I carefully dug 

 down on one side of this nest and found 

 that the openings outside led to a system 

 of ramifying tunnels, some leading to 

 oval chambers only about an inch below 

 the surface whilst others went down 

 much deeper into larger chambers. 

 Some of the smaller ones near the upper 

 surface I found filled with a store of seed 

 whilst other seed had been taken down 

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