266 NATURAL HISTORY. 
These galleries are sometimes carried under houses, which 
the Ants enter, and, eating out all of the inside of the 
timbers, leave them only as mere shells. Sometimes there 
are many of these curious structures in the same neigh- 
borhood. Dr. Adamson says that, in some parts near 
Senegal, there are so many of them near together that 
they appear like native villages. 
455. The community in one of these habitations is im- 
mense in number, consisting of laborers and soldiers un- 
der aking and queen. ‘These last are the only ones that 
come to the imago or perfect state. The laborers seem 
to be larvee stopped in their development, so that they 
never acquire wings. The soldiers, on the other hand, 
are pups. The queen lays all the eggs, to the number, 
it is estimated, of forty or fifty millions in a year. This 
she does in a royal chamber set apart for this purpose. 
The laborers take the eggs as fast as she lays them, car- 
ry them away to the nurseries, where they are hatched, 
and take care of the young. They also do all the build- 
ing and repairing, gather all the stores, and perform all 
the labor of any kind that is needed. The soldiers, on 
the contrary, do no work, but stand guard, and defend 
the community, in which they show great bravery and 
energy, appearing boldly upon the outposts when any en- 
emy appears, while all the laborers retire within. The 
royal chamber is near the centre of the hillock, and is 
surrounded by apartments which are occupied by what 
may be called the body-guard of the queen, some of the 
soldiers, and by her immediate attendants, some of the 
laborers. She can never leave her chamber, for no open- 
ing from it is large enough for the passage of her body, 
which is enormously enlarged for the production of its 
multitudes of eggs. The minutie of the arrangement 
of the nurseries and the various apartments, and of the 
economy of this wonderful community, are very interest- 
ing, but can not be entered upon here. 
456. The Book-lice form a small family nearly allied 
