BY WALTER W. FROGGATT. 
427 
into a hard papier-mache-like substance. The foundations of the 
smaller mound nests are commenced at the base of a stump or 
thrown up from under a fallen log. A correspondent in Kim- 
berley, W.A. (W. O. Manbridge), tells me that a species there 
forms its nest over the spinifex bushes. I have examined a great 
number, all of which give proof of this, and they can be found in 
all stages of growth. Though later writers have doubted the fact, 
Hooker* as early as 1855 wrote that the Indian species always 
commenced their nests over decaying woody or vegetable matter. 
That the different species have peculiar ways of their own when 
forming their mounds must be allowed, but the internal archi- 
tecture of all of them is based upon one uniform plan, and as 
an illustration of this I will describe the commonest large earth 
covered nest found in New South Wales. 
During a visit to the Shoalhaven district towards the end of 
last year I had ample opportunities of examining a number 
of these large nests, which are scattered thickly over all 
the open forest country along the river, but are seldom 
found towards the top of the ranges, the nests of the smaller 
Eutermes taking their place. Roughly speaking, the average 
is about one nest varying from three to seven feet in height 
to every four acres. They vary a little in outward shape, 
but a well-designed nest about six feet in diameter at the base 
will run up nearly the same height, with a slight slope on the 
sides to the apex, which is dome-shaped, not more than three feet 
in diameter. The enveloping walls consist of the surface soil only 
(a pale yellow sandy-brown) very hard on the weatherworn 
surface, but much softer when cut into. The basal portion of the 
walls are very much thinner than the dome-shaped summit, the 
lower portion of the wall often not being more than a foot in thick- 
ness, while the summit has a two-foot wall over it. All this earth 
is gathered from the surface by the termites and not mined from 
below, as many popular writers have asserted. In this locality 
this is plainly demonstrated, for three inches below the surface 
* J. D. Hooker. Himalyan Journals, London, 1855, Vol. i. p. 18. 
