CHAP. VI.] WHITE ANTS. 255 



mimities of the genuine ants, of labourers and soldiers, 

 which are destined never to acquire a fuller development 

 than that of larvae, and the perfect insects which in due 

 time become invested with wings and take their depart- 

 ing flight from the cave. But their new equipment 

 seems only destined to facilitate their dispersion from 

 the parent nest, which takes place at dusk ; and almost 

 as quickly as they leave it they divest themselves of 

 their ineffectual* wings, waving them impatiently and 

 twisting them in every direction till they become de- 

 tached and drop off, and the swarm, within a few hours 

 of their emancipation, become a prey to the night-jars 

 and bats, which are instantly attracted to them as they 

 issue in a cloud from the ground. I am not prepared 

 to say that the other insectivorous birds would not 

 gladly make a meal of the termites, but, seeing that in 

 Ceylon their numbers are chiefly kept in check by the 

 crepuscular birds, it is observable, at least as a coinci- 

 dence, that the dispersion of the swarm generally takes 

 place at twilight Those that escape the caprimulgi fall 

 a prey to the crows, in the morning succeeding their 

 flight. 



The strange peculiarity of the omnivorous ravages 

 of the white ants is that they shrink from the light, 

 in ah 1 their expeditions for providing food they con- 

 struct a covered pathway of moistened clay, and their 

 galleries above ground extend to an incredible distance 

 from the central nest. No timber, except ebony and 

 ironwood, which are too hard, and those which are 

 strongly impregnated with camphor or aromatic oils, 

 which they dislike, presents any obstacle to their ingress. 

 I have had a case of wine filled, in the course of two 

 days, with almost solid clay, and only discovered the pre- 

 sence of the white ants by the escape from the corks. I 

 have had a portmanteau in my tent so peopled with them 

 in the course of a single night that the contents were 

 found worthless in the morning. In an incredibly short 



