LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 79 
tirely of clay, and are generally twelve feet high, 
and broad in proportion, so that a cluster of them 
is often taken for an Indian village. The first 
thing they do is to erect two or three turrets of 
clay, about a foot high, like sugar-loaves. These 
rapidly increase in number and height, until at 
length, being widened at the base, joined at the 
top with a dome, and surrounded with walls, 
they appear in the shape of a haycock. When 
in this state, they remove the inner turrets or 
scaffoldings, and use the clay for other purposes. 
They occupy only the lower part of this palace, 
leaving the top empty for the circulation of air, 
and defence against the weather. The inhabited 
part is occupied by the royal chamber; the 
nurseries for the young ones; storehouses for 
food; and innumerable galleries, passages, and 
empty rooms : in the middle is the royal cham- 
ber, shaped like an oven, with a very narrow 
entrance, so that the poor king and queen can 
never possibly come out. All round it are a 
great number of arched rooms of different sizes, 
either opening into each other or communicating 
by passages, and intended for the soldiers and 
attendants in waiting on their royal mistress. 
Next are the nurseries and magazines. The 
former are occupied by the eggs and young ones, 
