k, and
presenting the appearance of a mass of shapeless pulp. From this great
progenitrix proceed the myriads that people the subterranean hive,
consisting, like the communities of the genuine ants, of labourers and
soldiers, which are destined never to acquire a fuller development than
that of larvae, and the perfect insects which in due time become invested
with wings and take their departing flight from the cave. But their new
equipment seems only destined to facilitate their dispersion from the
parent nest, which takes place at dusk; and almost as quickly as they
leave it they divest themselves of their ineffectual wings, waving them
impatiently and twisting them in every direction till they become
detached and drop off, and the swarm, within a few hours of their
emancipation, become a prey to the night-jars and bats, which are
instantly attracted to them as they issue in a cloud from the ground. I
am not prepared to say that the other insectivorous birds would not
gladly make a meal of the termites, but, seeing that in Ceylon their
numbers are chiefly kept in check by the crepuscular birds, it is
observable, at least as a coincidence, that the dispersion of the swarm
generally takes place at _twilight_. Those that escape the _caprimulgi_
fall a prey to the crows, on the morning succeeding their flight.

The strange peculiarity of the omnivorous ravages of the white ants is
that they shrink from the light; in all their expeditions for providing
food they construct a covered pathway of moistened clay, and their
galleries above ground extend to an incredible distance from the central
nest. No timber, except ebony and ironwood, which are too hard, and
those which are strongly impregnated with camphor or aromatic oils,
which they dislike, presents any obstacle to their ingress. I have had a
case of wine filled, in the course of two days, with almost solid clay,
and only discovered the presence of the white ants by the escape from
the corks. I have had a portmanteau in my tent so peopled with them in
the course of a single night that the contents were found worthless in
the morning. In an incredibly short time a detachment of these pests
will destroy a press full of records, reducing the paper to fragments;
and a shelf of books will be tunnelled into a gallery if it happen to be
in their line of march. The timbers of a house when fairly attacked are
eaten from within till the beams are reduced to an absolute shell, so
th