THS WHITE ANTS. 45;5 



serpentine manner. When the eggs are perfectly 

 formed, they begin to be protruded, and they come 

 forth so quickly that about sixty in a minute, or 

 upward of eighty thousand in twenty- four hours, 

 are deposited. 



These eggs are immediately taken away by the 

 attendants, and carried to the nurseries. Here they 

 are hatched. The young are attended and provided 

 with every thing necessary, until they are able to 

 shift for themselves, and take their share in the la- 

 bours of the community. 



The nests, or rather hills, of these Ants, for they 

 are often elevated ten or twelve feet above the sur- 

 face of the ground, are nearly of a conical shape ; 

 and sometimes so numerous as at a little distance to 

 appear like villages of the negroes. Jobson, in his 

 History of Gambia, says that some of them are 

 twenty feet high, and that he and his companions 

 have often hidden themselves behind them, to shoot 

 deer and other wild animals. Each hill is composed 

 of an exterior and an interior part. The exterior 

 cover is a large clay shell, shaped like a dome, of 

 strength and magnitude sufficient to inclose and 

 protect the interior building from the injuries of the 

 weather, and to defend its numerous inhabitants 

 from the attacks of natural or accidental enemies. 



These hills make their first appearance in the 

 form of conical turrets about a foot high. In a short 

 time the insects erect, at a little distance, other tur- 

 rets, and goon increasing their number and widening 

 their bases, till their underworks are entirely co- 

 vered with these turrets, which the animals always 



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