THE NATURALIST IN HIS BUNGALOW. 23 



But the succulent body of the white ant is a morsel to the 

 taste of every bird, and as the body of the termite is so 

 conspicuous it has to approach under cover all objects not 

 actually on the ground. The white ant, therefore, builds a 

 tunnel as it progresses. These trenching tunnels frequent- 

 ly appear on the bungalow walls, and marvellously quickly 

 do they grow. The termites work from the inside, and at 

 the incomplete end of the passage they may be seen in 

 numbers adding fresh pieces of mould. The earth for these 

 tunnels is usually brought up from under-ground ; thus 

 much of the deeper soil is carried to the surface. 



With the first advent of the rains we are invaded by a 

 new form of the white ant the winged form. They come 

 in thousands, they are the young males and females ready 

 to assume sexual relations, and to become the kings and 

 queens. The swarming of the white ant constitutes a verit- 

 able harvest for spiders, lizards, bats, toads, &c., and glad 

 are we that these winged forms have so many enemies that 

 prey upon them, for although the males and females 

 themselves do not attack wood, each female is able to pro- 

 duce in her time not far short of a million eggs, most of 

 which will develop into the wood-infesting forms. 



Want of space prevents me from even enumerating the 

 other inmates of the bungalow, the mice, rats, toads, flies, 

 moths, fish-insects, ticks, mosquitoes, and other parasites. 

 These creatures are all around us, each living its own little 

 life, each fulfilling its purpose in the plan of the universe. 

 There is, indeed, a considerable bungalow fauna, each 

 member of which forms a study in itself, a study which any 

 man, be he scientist or no, may take up, and even if reward- 

 ed by no great discovery, he will not look upon his labour 

 as lost, for he will at least have passed profitably and with 

 pleasure what would otherwise have proved many weary 

 hours of imprisonment in the bungalow. 



