m 
lowed out a book which lay upon the floor, eating out the greater 
part of its interior. About two feet from the corner of the house 
was the dead trunk of a large coniferous tree, covered with vines. 
It gave no external evidence of the presence of the insects, al¬ 
though it was completely honeycombed within, and white ants 
were abundant in it. The house had doubtless become infested 
• from this tree. 
Another dwelling near Tonti, that of Mr. A. Cope, was also 
found infested from the foundation to the eaves, many of the 
timbers, especially those of the porch of the dwelling, being badly 
eaten. \\ inged specimens had been noticed swarming from the 
walls of this house in April of three successive years. The tim¬ 
bers supporting the infested porch had been largely replaced be¬ 
cause of the damage by the ants, the owner supposing that the 
wood had simply rotted away. 
At Urbana, Illinois, the house of N. C. Ricker, Professor of 
Architecture in the University, was visibly infested by these in¬ 
sects for several years. Here they escaped in swarms, at the pair¬ 
ing season, from the upper parts of the house, and especially 
from under the eaves. They were apparently exterminated here, 
however, by pouring pure kerosene and gasoline into the holes 
from which they emerged and into their burrows in the ground 
at the base of the building. 
A curious instance of injury came to my notice through a com¬ 
munication from Prof. J. B. Turner, of Jacksonville, Illinois. An 
assistant who visited his place found several wooden beehives 
entirely ruined by white ants. These hives were resting on 
wooden cross-pieces lying on the ground, and were protected by 
an open shed. The insects had evidently first entered the cross¬ 
pieces and gone from them into the bottom and sides of the 
hives, which they had reduced to hollow shells, filling the exca¬ 
vated portions with earth as they went. In some cases their cov¬ 
ered galleries had been carried over the inner surface of the hive. 
Injuries to Bridges .—I have found but a single reported in¬ 
stance of injury to a bridge; that described by Dr. Hagen, in 1876.* 
The fact that wooden bridges commonly occur in w T oodlands, and 
that their foundation timbers at least are always more or less 
moist, would lead one to expect occasional damage to such struc- 
tures by white ants, and it is quite possible that such damage 
occurs, and that when detected the cause is overlooked. Consid¬ 
erable inquiry among railroad officials and agents of bridge com¬ 
panies has, however, led me to the conclusion that such damage 
must at least be rare, since I have learned no instance of it in 
Illinois. 
Injuries to Books and Papers .—Concerning the first injury to 
State documents in this State, previously mentioned, I have no defi¬ 
nite information except that contained in the following reference 
published in the “American Naturalist,”* by Dr. H. A. Hagen, of 
Harvard University: 
* Am. Naturalist, Vol. 10, p. 406. 
