236 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OP ANIMALS. CHAP. VII. 



over with fragments of wood and earth."* Kaempfer 

 tells us of the white ants of Japan, that he one morning 

 discovered that one of their galleries, the size of his 

 little finger, had been formed up one foot, across the 

 top, and down another foot of his table, into the floor, 

 in the course of a single night. Nor do these creatures 

 pursue their ruinous labours merely upon land, for they 

 frequently attack vessels upon the sea ; and a British 

 ship of the line, the Albion, was once in such a condition 

 in consequence, that, had she not been strongly lashed 

 together, it is thought that she would have foundered 

 on her voyage home : when brought into port, she was 

 in such a state as to be considered of no further use.-j- 



(248.) The annoyances which residents in India 

 are exposed to from various sorts of animals, seem to 

 be as numerous and distressing as those described by 

 Smeathman on the African coast, and which are more 

 or less to be found in all tropical countries. In India, 

 nearly all snakes have a propensity to enter houses, not 

 only as a temporary shelter, but to possess themselves 

 of the numerous rat burrows, wherein to remain con- 

 cealed. The abundance of vermin to be seen in houses, 

 even of the first class, proves the original incitement, 

 in fact, for snakes to venture in. The rats, however, 

 soon scent their enemy, and lose no time in shifting 

 their quarters ; and yet both these will frequently be 

 found inhabiting the thatch of the same dwelling. 

 The presence of snakes is generally announced by some 

 of the family being bit in their beds ; or, perhaps, by 

 the contests between the parties, both the snake and 

 the rat tumbling down on the floor from the inside of 

 the roof. " I was once dining with a friend," ob- 

 serves our authority, " when our attention was sud- 

 denly arrested by a Cobra di Capello and a rat, both 

 falling from the thatch upon one of the dishes on the 

 table. I know not which of the four were first out of 

 the room ! " J 



* Williamson's Orient Sports, vol. ii. p. 90. 



f Int. to Ent. vol. i. p. 2*7. I Williamson, vol. ii. p. 171. 



