2l6 THE INDUSTRIES Of ANIMALS. 



very best conditions for protection against the alter- 

 nation of cold at night and tonid heat during the 

 day. 



It is difficult to know which to admire most — the 

 audacity and vastness of the labour undertaken by 

 these insects, or the ingenious foresight by which they 

 ensure to their delicate larvae a comfortable youth. 

 There can be no doubt that these animals show them- 

 selves very superior to Man, taking into consideration 

 his enormous size compared to theirs, in the art of 

 building. Pillars, cupolas, vaults — nothing is too 

 difficult or too complicated for these small and patient 

 labourers. '^ 



The Ants of our own lands do not yield to the 

 Termites in this industry, and their dwellings are 

 models of architecture. As they have been more 

 carefully studied we know more exactly how they 

 work, and the considerable sum of intelligence and 

 initiative which they reveal in the accomplishment 

 of their task. At the foot of hedges, on the outskirts 

 of woods, they raise their frail monuments. The 

 species are not equally skilful, and such differences as 

 we have found in other industries may also be found 

 here. In a general manner it was soon found that 

 Ants do not, like Bees, obey a rigid instinct which 



1 The earliest comprehensive account of the Termites and their 

 industries was by Smeathman in the Fhilosophical Transactions of the 

 Royal Society, vol. IxxL, 1781, pp. 139-192. Later they were studied 

 by Lespes : " Recherches sur I'organisation et les raoeurs du Termite 

 lucifuge," Ann. des Sci. Nat., 4n,e Serie, t. v., fasc. 4 and 5, Paris, 

 1856. For a description of the South American Termitarium see also 

 Bates's Naturalist on the Amazons (unabridged edition, 1892), pp. 

 208-214; and for the African Termites of Victoria Nyanza, a chapter 

 in 11. Drummond's Tiopical Africa, 1888, pp. 123-158; while Forbes 

 has briefly described them in Java, Naturalist's Wanderings in the 

 Eastern Archipelago, pp. 73, 74. 



