OF NATURAL HISTORY. ^6^ 



* The fkin between the fegments of the abdomen extends in every 



* diredion^ and at lafl the fegments are removed to half an inch 

 ' diftance from each other, though, at firft, the length of the whole 

 ' abdomen is not half an inch. I conjedure the animal is upwards 

 ' of two years old when the abdomen is increafed to three inches in 



* length : I have fometiraes found them of near twice that fize. Tlie 



* abdomen is now of an irregular oblong ihape, being contraded by 

 ' the mufcles of every fegment, and is become one vafl matrix full 



* of eggs, which make long circumvolutions through an innumerable 

 ' quantity of very minute veffels that circulate round the infide in a 

 ' ferpentine manner, which would exercife the ingenuity of a fkill- 

 ' ful anatomift to dilTedt and develope. This fingular matrix is not 

 ' more remarkable for its amazing extenfion and fize than for its 

 ' peridaltic motion, which refembles the undulating of waves, and 

 ' continues inceiTantly without any apparent effort of the animal ; 

 ' fo that one part or other, alternately, is rifing and finking in per- 

 ' petual fucceffion, and the matrix feems never at reft, but is always 



* protruding eggs to the amount (as I have frequently counted in 

 ' old queens) of fixty in a minute, or eighty thoufand and upward 

 ' in one day of twenty-four hours. 



* Thefe eggs are inftantly taken from her body by her attendants, 

 ' (of whom there always are, in the royal chamber and the galleries 

 ' adjacent, a fufficient number in waiting), and carried to the nurfe- 

 ' ries, which, in a great neft, may fome of them be four or five feet 

 ' diftant in a ftraight line, and, confequently, much farther by their 

 ' winding galleries. Here, after they are hatched, the young are 



* attended and provided with every thing neceffary until they are 



* able to fhifc for themfelves, and take their fhare of the labours of 



* the community.' 



Z z 2 V/e 



