436 
AUSTRALIAN TERMITIDjE, 
However, different localities seem to give them different 
habits, for the mound builder of the Shoalhaven district is the 
same species as that which does most of the damage to the wood- 
work of the houses about Sj^dney, yet I have never been able to 
find a mound formed by them within thirty miles of Sydney, 
though it is the commonest species of this neighbourhood, being 
found under stones, logs, bark, and in tree trunks. 
About the middle of last year it was discovered that the white 
ants were in the floor of the Record Room in the offices of the 
Department of Education in Bridge-street, where I had an oppor- 
tunity of seeing the method of attack. 
I found that the floor, which was old and attacked with dry rot 
in places, had been riddled all along the hard gum (probably iron- 
bark) joists for a distance of 15 to 20 feet all round what had evidently 
been the centre of the nest, as a great mass of clay had been raised 
up from the ground between two joists round which the timbers 
were perfectly honeycombed. The nest and timbers round it were 
full of soldiers, workers and young winged forms, but I saw no 
sign of a queen, though as the floor had been uncovered the night 
before this was hardly to be wondered at. This nest, I should 
think, had been under the floor for some years; and it was only 
from their beginning to eat through the hardwood flooring boards 
that the termites were noticed. 
On several other occasions I have obtained specimens taken out 
of buildings, and it has always proved to be the same species. 
Sometimes they attack only a single board or joist and then leave 
the place, but at other times they eat on till disturbed. Mr. 
Chisholm, of Torrens Creek, North Queensland, tells me that they 
are easily frightened by thumping against the board or wall they 
are destroying, and run back, huddling together like a flock of 
frightened sheep. ISTo timber is really termite-proof unless pro- 
tected, for though they have a marked preference for some wood?, 
yet if they cannot get what they lik e they take the nearest; thus 
in Normanton Melaleuca is said to be ant-resisting, yet further 
down the Flinders they show a marked preference for it. The 
Jarrah ( Eucalyptus marginata ) of Western Australia is another 
