310 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OP ANIMALS. CHAP. X. 



other parts of the woodwork, as fast as it is eaten 

 away, is filled up by these skilful masons ; and their 

 cement is so admirably tempered and worked together, 

 that no human art could render it more compact or 

 durable. 



(314.) In houses which, from having been other- 

 wise injured by them, have been pulled down, and the 

 posts examined, all the softer kinds of wood are re- 

 duced to a mere shell, the greater part appearing as if 

 transformed from wood to clay, as solid and as hard 

 as many kinds of our freestone. It is much the same 

 when the Termites bellicosi get into a chest or trunk ; 

 for, if there is any considerable weight upon it, they 

 will substitute clay cement for the wood or other sub- 

 stance which they devour, carrying their roads in 

 various directions. The arborial white ants, however, 

 when they get within a box, will often turn it into a 

 nest, and, being once in fair possession of the whole, 

 devour its contents at their leisure. They are no less 

 expeditious in destroying the shelves, wainscoting, and 

 other fixtures of a house, than the house itself. They 

 seem universal destroyers, but they always commence 

 at first with the softest substances. If a shelf, for 

 instance, has nothing upon it, they will not perforate 

 the surface, but artfully preserve it quite whole, eating 

 away all the inside except a few fibres, which barely 

 keep the two sides connected together : to the eye, 

 there is no external injury, and the board appears per- 

 fectly solid ; touch it, however, and it crumbles into 

 dust, and a thick plank is reduced to the weight of 

 two sheets of paper. They are as persevering as they 

 are intelligent; and the injury they can cause in a 

 single night is inconceivable. Sometimes they will 

 enter a new house from the floor. If you detect the 

 attack, destroy their works, and even make a fire upon 

 the spot, they will return to the charge the next night, 

 and make an entry in another place, When they 

 attack trees or branches in the open air, they exhibit 

 new features of intelligence. If a stake in a hedge has 



