DUCK-ATsTS. 
119 
with large black, round masses, often as big as a 
hogshead, adhering to the trunks or the branches. 
Curious to know the nature of so singular an appen- 
dage, he is told that these protuberant masses are the 
nests of Duck-ants or Termites ; and on examination 
he finds that they are composed apparently of an 
earthy substance, comminuted very fine, and made 
into a sort of paste with animal gluten. The outside 
is friable, and much resembles, except in colour, that 
description of pastry technically called “ short,” as 
does the whole of that portion which is newly con- 
structed ; but the interior has a hardness and firm- 
ness superior to that of wood. The whole mass is 
composed of numberless passages of the diameter of 
a man’s little finger, separated by walls about one- 
tenth of an inch thick, and running without any 
obvious regularity or design. On the surface-walls 
being broken in, out swarm hundreds of the inhabit- 
ants, most of them active little fellows with black 
heads, but many, rather larger and plumper, with 
yellow heads are scattered among the crowd. I pre- 
sume the former to be the labourers, and the latter 
the soldiers. A single covered gallery is invariably 
found to extend from the edifice along the trunk of 
the tree to the earth. Frequently I have observed 
in the morning a similar covered gallery, as thick as 
one’s thumb, extending all across the high-road daily 
travelled by vehicles of various kinds ; whence I con- 
clude that the construction of such a passage was the 
work of the preceding night. 
After a time, from some cause or other, the great 
nests are deserted; but continue to maintain their 
integrity for an indefinite period. In this state the 
