WHITE ANTS. 289 



of a house, undevoured, or to eat in open day. 

 They do neither ; hut are at the trouble of construct- 

 ing galleries of clay, in which they can conceal 

 themselves, and feed in security. In all their forag- 

 ing excursions, indeed, they build covert ways, by 

 which they can go out and return to their encamp- 

 ment* 



Others of the species (for there are several), in- 

 stead of building galleries, exercise the art of miners, 

 and make their approaches under ground, penetrating 

 beneath the foundation of houses or areas, and rising 

 again either through the floors, or by entering the 

 bottom of the posts that support the building, when 

 they follow the course of the fibres, and make their 

 way to the top, boring holes and cavities in different 

 places, as they proceed. Multitudes enter the roof, 

 and intersect it with pipes or galleries, formed of 

 wet clay ; which serve for passages in all directions, 

 and enable them more readily to fix their habitations 

 in it. They prefer the softer woods, such as pine and 

 fir, which they hollow out with such nicety, that they 

 leave the surface whole, after having eaten away the 

 inside. A shelf or plank attacked in this manner 

 looks solid to the eye, when, if weighed, it will not 

 out-balance two sheets of pasteboard of the same di- 

 mensions. It sometimes happens that they carry 

 this operation so far on stakes in the open air, as to 

 render the bark too flexible for their purpose ; when 

 they remedy the defect by plastering the whole stick 

 with a sort of mortar which they make with clay ; so 

 that, on being struck, the form vanishes, and the ar- 

 tificial covering falls in fragments on the ground. 

 In the woods, when a large tree falls from age or 

 accident, they enter it on the side next the ground, 

 and devour it at leisure, till little more than the bark 



* Smeathman, in Phil. Trans., vol. Ixxi. 



