How Animals Work. 



only a scavenger, but an expert builder, and incidentally 

 one of Nature's ploughs, turning the soil of the tropical 

 regions which it inhabits, not clod by clod, but grain 

 by grain. 



Of the manner in which the Termites construct 

 their tunnels and covered ways Professor Henry Drum- 

 mond gives the following interesting description > "At 

 the foot of a tree the tiniest hole cautiously opens in 

 the ground close to the bank. A small head appears 

 with a grain of earth clasped in its jaws. Against the 

 tree trunk this earth grain is deposited, and the head 

 is withdrawn. Presently it reappears with another grain 

 of earth ; this is laid beside the first, rammed tight 

 against it, and again the builder descends underground 

 for more. The third grain is not placed against the 

 tree, but against the former grain. A fourth, a fifth, and 

 a sixth follow, and the plan of the foundation begins to 

 suggest itself as soon as these are in position. The 

 stones or grains or pellets of earth are arranged in a 

 semicircular wall the Termite, now assisted by three 

 or four others, standing in the middle between the 

 sheltering wall and the tree, and working briskly with 

 head and mandible to strengthen the position. The 

 wall, in fact, forms a small moon-rampart, and as it 

 grows higher and higher it soon becomes evident that 

 it is going to grow from a low battlement into a long, 

 perpendicular tunnel running up the side of the tree. 

 The workers, safely ensconced inside, are now carrying 

 up the structure with great rapidity, disappearing in 

 turn as soon as they have laid their stone, and rushing 

 off to bring up another. The way in which the build- 

 ing is done is extremely curious, and one could watch 



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