SWARMING OF THE WHITE ANTS 125 
primitive one; it is the more wasteful, and suited only 
to small and lowly-organized creatures. 
It may seem strange, seeing how numerous white 
ants are in India, that naturalists know so little about 
their life-history. The percentage of bungalows in this 
Land of Regrets which are free from these pests must 
be small. Almost daily do we discover some fresh 
evidence of their ravages. 
Their latest exploit has been to devour the most 
savoury portions of my cricket-bat! Yet we know so 
little of their life-history. The fact is that the condi- 
tions of the life of termites are so peculiar that it is 
most difficult to watch them. They shun both light 
and air. They are creatures of darkness, and black are 
their deeds, Except for the short time that they 
possess wings they seem unable to live if exposed to 
light. They do everything in secret. They discover 
by some unknown means a decayed beam in the roof 
of the bungalow ; the whole colony forthwith set to and 
proceed to tunnel through the wall from bottom to top. 
If perchance they come to a hard part into which they 
cannot dig, they go to the surface of the wall and there 
construct of mud a covered tunnel to hide their comings 
and goings. 
They have soft, succulent bodies, highly esteemed as 
food by insectivorous animals; hence their fear of 
showing themselves. When taken out of the dark, 
underground world in which they live, they will do 
nothing, and, as the naturalist cannot observe them 
without light, matters are at somewhat of a deadlock. 
There are supposed to exist nearly a thousand 
