WHITE ANTS. 621 



The rapidity with which the Mouse can make a nest is some- 

 what surprising. One of the Cambridge journals mentioned, 

 some few years ago, that in a farmer's house a loaf of newly- 

 baked bread was placed upon a shelf, according to custom. Next 

 day a hole was observed in the loaf; and when it was cut open, 

 a Mouse and her nest were discovered within, the latter having 

 been made of paper. On examination, the material of the habit- 

 ation was found to have been obtained from a copy-book, which 

 had been torn into shreds and arranged into the form of a nest. 



Within this curious home were nine young mice, pink, trans- 

 parent, and newly born. Thus, in the space of thirty -six hours at 

 the most, the loaf must have cooled, the interior been excavated, 

 the copy-book found and cut into suitable pieces, the nest made, 

 and the young brought into the world. Surely it is no wonder 

 that mice are so plentiful, or that their many enemies fail to ex- 

 terminate them. 



A general account of the Termites, or White Ants, as they 

 are popularly but erroneously called, has been given under the 

 head of Building Insects, and it has been mentioned that the fe- 

 male, or queen, has a cell distinct from the habitation of her sub- 

 jects, and that she never leaves it until her death. In order that 

 the reader should understand more fully the structure of the roy- 

 al cell, an illustration of it is introduced on the following page. 



When viewed from the outside it would hardly be recognized 

 for the habitation of an insect, for it looks like a large lump of 

 hardened clay, about as large as an ordinary French roll, and not 

 very unlike it in shape. On a closer inspection, a number of lit- 

 tle holes may be seen, and these apertures afford an unfailing in- 

 dication as to the real nature of the clay lump. Fig. 2 represents 

 the external appearance of one of these cells. 



Supposing that a queen Termite cell be cut vertically, so that 

 the knife passes through either of the little round holes, it will 

 present an appearance which is shown at Fig. 1. The large hol- 

 low of the cell is nearly filled by the body of the female, whose 

 head and thorax are seen in the cavity. On either side is a sec- 

 tion of the little holes, which are shown to be cylindrical passages 

 communicating with the interior of the cell. The worker Ter- 

 mites, being very small, can traverse these passages with perfect 

 ease, while the enormous body of the. female is utterly unable to 

 pass. 



