WHITE ANTS. 297 



of time, the queen enlarges, it is necessary to enlarge 

 the chamber for her accommodation ; and as she 

 then lays a greater number of eggs, and requires a 

 greater number of attendants, so it is necessary to 

 enlarge and increase the number of the adjacent 

 apartments ; for which purpose the small nurseries 

 which are first built are taken to pieces, rebuilt a 

 little further of a size larger, and the number of 

 them increased at the same time. Thus they conti- 

 nually enlarge their apartments, pull down, repair, 

 or rebuild, according to their wants, with a degree of 

 sagacity, regularity, and foresight, not even imitated 

 by any other kind of animals or insects. 



All these chambers and the passages leading to 

 and from them being arched, they help to support 

 each other ; and while the interior large arches prevent 

 them from falling into the centre, and keep the area 

 open, the exterior building supports them on the out- 

 side. There are, comparatively speaking, few open- 

 ings into the great area, and they, for the most part, 

 seem intended only to admit into the nurseries that 

 genial warmth which the dome collects. The interior 

 building, or assemblage of nurseries, chambers, &c, 

 has a fiattish top or roof, without any perforation, 

 which would keep the apartments below dry, in case 

 through accident the dome should receive any injury, 

 and let in water ; and it is never exactly flat and 

 uniform, because the insects are always adding to it 

 by building more chambers and nurseries ; so that 

 the division or columns between the future arched 

 apartment resemble the pinnacles on the fronts of 

 some old buildings, and demand particular notice, as 

 affording one proof that for the most part the in- 

 sects project their arches, and do not make them by 

 excavation. The area has also a fiattish floor, which 

 lies over the royal chamber, but sometimes a good 

 height above it, having nurseries and magazines 



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