THE WHITE ANTS. 463 



fill up so artfully as not to let it be distinguishable 

 while it remains moist; and, externally, it has no 

 other appearance than that of a shapeless lump of 

 clay. It is however easily found, from its situation 

 with respect to the other parts of the building, and 

 by the crowds of labourers and soldiers which 

 surround it, who shew their loyalty and fidelity by 

 dying under its walls. The royal chamber, in a 

 large nest, is capacious enough to hold many hun- 

 dreds of the attendants, besides the royal pair ; and 

 it is always found as full of them as it can hold. 

 These faithful subjects never abandon their charge 

 even in the last distress ; for, whenever I took out 

 the royal chamber, as I often did, and preserved it 

 for some time in a large glass bowl, all the attend- 

 ants continued running in one direction round the 

 king and queen with the utmost solicitude, some of 

 them stopping at the head of the latter, as if to give 

 her something. When they came to the extremity 

 of the abdomen, they took the eggs from her, car- 

 ried them away, and piled them carefully together 

 in some part of the chamber, or in the bowl under, 

 or behind any broken pieces of clay which lay most 

 conveniently for the purpose*. 



THE LOUSE TRIBE. 



THE mouth in these animals is formed by a re- 

 tractile recurved sucker, without a proboscis. There 



Phil. Tran. vol. Ixxi. p, 139—192. 



