WHITE ANTS. 
‘485 
(( These apartments are joined by the magazines 
and nurseries. The former are chambers of clay, 
and are always well filled with provisions, which to 
the naked eye seem to consist of the raspings of 
wood and plants which the termites destroy, but 
are found in the microscope to be principally gums, 
or the inspissated juices of plants. These are 
thrown together in little masses, some of which are 
finer than others, and resemble the sugar about pre- 
served fruits ; others are like tears of gum, one quite 
transparent, another like amber, a third brown, and 
a fourth quite opaque, as we often see in parcels of 
ordinary gums. These magazines are intermixed 
with the nurseries, which are buildings totally dif- 
ferent from the rest of the apartments ; for these 
are composed entirely of v/ooden materials, seem- 
ingly joined together with gums. I call them the 
nurseries, because they are invariably occupied by 
the eggs and young ones, which appear at first in 
the shape of labourers, but white as snow. These 
buildings are exceedingly compact, and divided into 
many very small irregular-shaped chambers, not 
one of which is to be found of half an inch in 
width. They are placed all round the royal apart- 
ments, and as near as possible to them. When the 
nest is in the infant state, the nurseries are close to 
the royal chamber; but as in process of time the 
queen enlarges, it is necessary to enlarge the cham- 
ber for her accommodation ; and as she then lays a 
greater number of eggs, and requires a greater num- 
ber of attendants, so it is necessary to enlarge and 
