426 
AUSTRALIAN TERMITIDjE, 
district (where I spent over twelve months), and probably as far 
as the De Grey River, all through the open forest flats and along 
the edge of the sandy "Pindan" country are found numbers of 
large broad nests, from live to six feet in height, rather constricted 
at the base, but swelling out on the sides in rounded masses, 
where additions have been made, while the summit is broad and 
rounded, giving them somewhat of a mushroom-like appearance. 
As there are few or no trees over a belt of country to the 
westward of the De Grey River for over three hundred miles, the 
termites apparently disappear, nor can I find that they construct 
nests or are at all noticeable in any other part of Western 
Australia, but they have recently been reported as having 
attacked the telegraph poles between York and Coolgardie. This 
also applies to South Australia, though it must be remembered 
that scattered bands of termites may be found in almost any part 
of Australia which may attack an odd plank or tree, but they are 
not in evidence as a serious pest. 
In the vast tracts of dry and sparsely timbered country in 
central Australia, termites are naturally scarce, and probably 
wanting altogether in many parts of it. I never remember seeing 
a mound nest west of the Darling or even in the northern districts 
of Riverina, but with further observations from my many corres- 
pondents, I hope to enlarge our knowledge of their distribution 
and supplement this necessarily rough sketch. 
Termitaria and their Structure. 
Broadly speaking, termites' nests may be separated into three 
different typical forms, each of which undergoes several important 
modifications in outward appearance, but always has the same 
internal structure. The first may be called the turret or regular 
mound nests, varying from eighteen feet in height to a little 
pinnacle only a few inches above the surface, and sometimes 
simply a bald patch upon the ground. In these abnormally high 
ones the clay is generally carried up the face of a dead tree, which 
is gradually sheathed with this coating, while the trunk beneath 
is changed nto triturated wood which in time becomes converted 
