A YOUNG NATURALIST. 



233 



workmen, who were beginning to disappear, soon came out 

 again to examine the spot threatened, and in a moment after 

 the surface of the nest appeared to be swarming. I then 

 kept making a noise at one point of the nest only, when the 

 soldier ants soon rushed out, easily recognizable by their 

 enormous heads ; finally, I removed a small portion of the 

 outside of the construction, and brought to light a multi- 

 tude of white specks. These were the eggs, which the 

 workmen hurried to carry farther into the nest. After 

 having caused all this disturbance, I led Lucien away, for 

 the ground was covered with soldier ants, and I was too 

 well aware of the violence of their stings to willingly ex- 

 pose him to them. 



"But I haven't seen the queen," cried my young com- 

 panion. 



" She keeps quite in the centre of the building, immured 

 in a cell which she seldom or never leaves, for her bulk is 

 equal to that of twenty or thirty working ants. Sumichrast, 

 who has been a great observer of these insects, asserts that 

 the queen lays about eighty thousand eggs a day. As soon 

 as they are hatched, the young termites are carried off into 

 large compartments, where they are fed until they are old 

 enough to take a part in the labor. During the rainy season, 

 a. certain number of white ants are born with four wings, 

 which enables them to proceed to a distance and found other 

 colonies ; but these wings are only temporary, and I have 

 often been puzzled by finding immense quantities of them." 



"How do the termites manage to build their dwell- 

 ings ?" 



" The one we have just examined appears to be formed 

 of earth, kneaded up with a kind of gum which the insect 

 secretes. In the subterranean passages of a termite's nest 

 there are arches which seem to be composed of morsels of 

 wood stuck together by some sticky matter. These insects 



