512 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



rets of clay about a foot high, and in shape like a sugar- 

 loaf. These, which seem to be the scaffolds of the future 

 building, rapidly increase in number and height, until 

 at length being widened at the base, joined at the top 

 into one dome, and consolidated all round into a thick 

 wall of clay, they form a building of the size above men- 

 tioned, and of the shape of a hay-cock, which when 

 clothed, as it generally soon becomes, with a coating of 

 grass, it at a distance very much resembles. When the 

 building has assumed this its final form, the inner tur- 

 rets, all but the tops, which project like pinnacles from 

 different parts of it, are removed, and the clay employed 

 over again in other services. 



It is the lower part alone of the building that is occu- 

 pied by the inhabitants. The upper portion or dome, 

 which is very strong and solid, is left empty, serving 

 principally as a defence from the vicissitudes of the 

 weather and the attacks of natural or accidental ene- 

 mies, and to keep up in the lower part a genial warmth 

 and moisture necessary to the hatching of the eggs and 

 cherishing of the young ones. The inhabited portion is 

 occupied by the royal chamber, or habitation of the 

 king and queen ; the nurseries for the young ; the store- 

 houses for food; and innumerable galleries, passages, 

 and empty rooms : arranged according to the following 

 plan. 



In the centre of the building, just under the apex, 

 and nearly on a level with the surface of the ground, is 

 placed the royal chamber, an arched vault of a semi- 

 oval shape, or not unlike a long oven ; at first not above 

 an inch long, but enlarged as the queen increases in 



