154 JWlr. smeathman’s Account oj 
©n bringing them to the micro fcope, they evidently appeared to 
be a fpecies of mufhroona, in ffiape like our eatable mufti- 
roorn in the young ftate in which it is pickled (tab. VIII. fig. 7.)* 
They appear, when whole, white like fnow a little thawed 
and then frozen again, and when bruifed feem compofed of an 
infinite number of pellucid particles, approaching to oval forms 
and difficult to Separate ; the mouldinefs fee ms like wife to be. 
the fame kind of fubftance (I2 V 
The nurferies are inclofed in chambers of clay, like tliofe 
which contain the provifionSj but much larger* In the early 
ftate of the neft they are not bigger than an hazel-nut,, but in 
great hills are often as large as a child’s head of a year old. 
The difpofition of the interior parts of thefe hills is pretty 
much alike, except when feme infurmountable obftacle prevents ; 
for inftance, when the king and queen have been firft lodged near 
the foot of a rock or of a tree, they are certainlv built out of the- 
j j 
ufual form, otherwife pretty nearly according to the following 
plan. 
The royal chamber is fituated at about a level with the fur- 
face of the ground, at an equal diftance from all the fides of 
the building,, and direftly under the apex, of the hill (tab. VIL 
fig, 2. A, A X 
(12) Mr konig, who ' has examined thefe kind of nefbs in the Baft Indies, in an 
EfThy upon. the Termites, read before the Society of Naturalifts of Berlin, con- 
jedtures, that- thefe muilirOoms are the food of the young infedts. This fuppofition 
implies, that the old ones have a method of providing for and promoting their 
growth j a circumllance which, however ftrange to thofe unacquainted with the 
fagacity of thefe Infedts, I will venture, to fay, from. many other extraordinary fadts 
I. have feen of them, is not very improbable. 
N. B. Mi. konig has not difcoyered the magazines of provilions in the nefls 
which he opened, as far as I am informed ; but I mull obferve hefe, that what I 
have learned of this gentlemams account was from an extempore tranflation. of the 
heads of it. 
in 
