arrive; and, secondly, that they should know which way to steer their course, and whither to go.

Birds of passage are all peculiarly accommodated, by the structure of their parts, for long flights; and it is remarked that, in their migrations they observe a wonderful order and polity: they fly in troops, and steer their course, without the aid of compass, to vast unknown regions. The flight of wild geese, in a wedge-like figure, has often been observed; and it has been noticed that the three foremost, who are the soonest tired, retreat behind, and are relieved by others, who are again succeeded by the rest in order. At the approach of winter the wild ducks and cranes of the north fly in quest of more favourable climates. They all assemble, at a certain day, like swallows and quails, decamping at the same time. Their flight is highly curious: they generally range themselves in a long column like an I: or in two lines united in a point, like a V reversed. It is observed by Shaw, in his travels, that storks, about a fortnight before they pass from one country to another, constantly resort together from all the circumjacent parts, to a certain plain, and there forming themselves daily into what, in the popular phrase is, called a dou wanne, determine the exact time of their departure, and the places of their future abode.

Swallows have often been observed, in innumerable flocks, on churches, rocks, and trees, previously to their departure from Great Britain; and their return, in apparently equal numbers, has been witnessed in a variety of instances. In Sweden, the starling, finding, after the middle of summer, that worms are less plentiful, goes annually into Scania, Germany, and Denmark. The female chaffinches, every winter about Michaelmas, go in flocks to Holland; but as the males stay in Sweden, the females come back in the spring, except such as do not chose to breed any longer. In the same manner, the female Carolina yellow-hammer, in the month of September, while the rice on which she feeds is laid up in granaries, goes towards the south, and returns in the spring to seek fer mate. The aquatic birds of the north are forced by necessity to fly toward the south every autumn before the water is frozen. Thus the lakes of Poland and Lithuania are filled with swans and geese in the autumnal season, at which time they go in great flocks, along many rivers, as far as the Euxine sea. In the

beginning of spring, however, as soon as the heat of the sun molests them, they return back, and again frequent the borders of the springs and lakes, where the females deposit their eggs; for there, and especially in Lapland, a vast abundance of gnats-insects which live in the water before they get their wings-afford them an excellent nourishment. By these migrations, birds become useful to many countries, and are distributed over almost every part of the globe.

THE TERMITES, OR WHITE ANTS.

[See Plates, No. 54, 55.J

Or these very surprising insects naturalists describe four species, the largest of which is the TERMES BELLICOsus, or BELLIGERENT TERMITE. The nests of these insects are large handsome pyramids, ten or twelve feet and upwards above the surface of the earth, and as many beneath it. The second species is named the FATAL TERMITE, the nests of which are likewise of a pyramidal.form, but neither so lofty nor extensive as the former. Its ravages, however, are more fatal, and its punctures more painful and dangerous. The BITING TERMITE forms the third species, and constructs its nest in the form of a cylindrical turret, four feet high, and one in diameter. The turret is covered with a conical roof, which projects some inches over, and beyond the building, doubtless to prevent it from being injured by the rain. The DESTROYING TERMITE constitutes the fourth species, and constructs spherical nests round the branch of a tree, which passes entirely through them.

The TERMES BELLICOSUS, according to Mr. Smeathman, whose account has appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, constructs works which surpass those of the bees, wasps, beavers, and other animals, as much at least as those of the most polished European nations excel those of the least cultivated savages. Even with regard to man, his greatest works, the boasted pyramids, fall comparatively far short, even in size alone, of the structures raised by these insects. The labourers among them employed in this service are not a quarter of an inch in length; but the structures which they erect, rise, as has already been observed, to the height of ten or twelve feet and upwards above the surface of the earth. Supposing the height of a man to be six feet, this author calculates, that the buildings

of these insects may be considered, relatively to their size, and that of a man, as being raised to nearly five times the height of the greatest of the Egyptian pyramids; that is, corresponding with considerably more than half a mile. It may be added, that, with respect to the interior construction, and the various members and dispositions of the parts of the buildings, they appear greatly to exceed that, or any other work of human construction.

The most striking parts of these structures are, the royal apartments, the nurseries, magazines of provisions, arched chambers and galleries, with their various communications; the ranges of the gothic-shaped arches, projected, and not formed by mere excavation, some of which are two or three feet high, but which diminish rapidly, like the arches,of aisles in perspectives; the various roads, sloping staircases, and bridges, consisting of one vast archi, and constructed to shorten the distance between the several parts of the building, which would otherwise communicate only by winding passages. In the plate, a section is given of one of these surprising mounds or ant hills; and likewise the section of a pyramid surmounted by its conical roof. In some parts near Senegal, the number, magnitude, and closeness of these structures, make them appear like the villages of the natives.

The economy of these industrious insects is equally curious with the plan and arrangement of the interior of their buildings. There are three distinct ranks or orders among them, constituting a well regulated community. These are, first, the labourers, or working insects; next, the soldiers, or fighting order, who abstain from all labour, and are about twice as long as the former, and equal in bulk to about fifteen of them; and, lastly, the winged, or perfect insects, which may be styled the nobility or gentry, of the state; for they neither labour nor fight, being scarcely capable even of self-defence. These alone are capable of being elected kings or queens; and it has been so ordained by nature, that they emigrate within a few weeks after they are elevated to this state, and either establish new kingdoms or perish in the space of one or two days.

The first order, the working insects, are most numerous, being in the proportion of one hundred to one of the soldiers. In this state they are about a quarter of an inch

long, and twenty-five of them weigh about a grain, so that they are not so large as some of the ants of Europe.

The second order, or soldiers, have a very different form from the labourers, and have been by some authors supposed to be the males, and the former the neuters; but they are, in reality, the same insects as the foregoing, only that they have undergone a change of form, and approached one degree nearer to the perfect state.

The third order, or the insect in its perfect state, varies its form still more than ever, differing in every essential part from the labourers and soldiers; besides which, it is now furnished with four fine, large, brownish, transparent wings, with which it is, at the time of emigration, to wing its way in search of a new settlement. The difference is, indeed, so great, that these perfect insects have not, until recently, been supposed to belong to the same community with the others, and are not to be discovered in the nest until just before the commencement of the rainy season, when they undergo the last change, which is preparative to the formation of new colonies. They are equal in bulk to two soldiers and about thirty labourers; and, with the aid of their wings, roam about for a few hours, when their wings fall off, and they become the prey of innumerable birds, reptiles, and insects. Hence it happens that scarcely a pair of the many millions of this unhappy race, find a place of safety, to fulfil the first law of nature, and lay the foundation of a new community. In this state many fall into the neighbouring waters, and are eaten with avidity by the Africans, who roast them in the manner of coffee, and find them delicate, nourishing, and wholesome.

The few fortunate pairs who survive this annual massacre and destruction, being casually found by some of the labourers, who are constantly running about on the surface of the ground, are elected kings and queens of new states. Those who are not so elected and preserved, certainly perish, and most probably in the course of the following day. By these industrious creatures the king and queen elect are immediately protected from their innumerable enemies, by inclosing them in a chamber of clay, where the propagation of the species soon commences. Their voluntary subjects then busy themselves in constructing wooden nurseries, or apartments solely composed of wood

en materials, seemingly joined together with gums. Into these they afterwards carry the eggs produced by the queen, lodging them as fast as they can obtain them from her. Plausible reasons are given by Mr. Smeathman for the belief he entertains, that they here form a kind of garden for the cultivation of a species of microscopical mushroom; and in this belief he is supported by Mr. Konig, in his essay on the East-Indian termites, by whom also this is conjectured to be the food of the young insects. But perhaps the most wonderful, at the same time best authenticated, part of the history of these curious insects, is that which relates to the queen, or mother of the community in her pregnancy.

After impregnation, a very extraordinary change begins to take place in her person, or rather in her abdomen only. It gradually increases in bulk, and at length becomes of such an enormous size as to exceed the bulk of the rest of her body 1500 or 2000 times. She becomes 1000 times heavier than her consort, and exceeds 20,000 or 30,000 times the bulk of one of the labourers. In this state 80,000 eggs (for they have been counted) are protruded in twenty-four hours. They are instantly taken from her body by the attendants, a sufficient number of whom are constantly in waiting in the royal chambers, and adjacent galleries, and carried to the nurseries, which are sometimes four or five feet distant in a straight line. Here, after they are hatched, the young are attended and provided with every thing necessary, until they are able to shift for themselves, and take their share in the labours of the community.

Many curious and striking particulars are related of the great devastations committed by this powerful community, which construct roads, or rather covered ways, diverging in all directions from the nest, and leading to every object of plunder within their reach. Though the mischiefs they commit are very great, such is the economy of nature, that they are probably counterbalanced by the good produced by them, in quickly destroying dead trees and other substances, which would otherwise, by a tedious decay, serve only to encumber the face of the earth. Such is their alac rity and dispatch in this office, that the total destruction of deserted towns is accomplished in two or three years, and their space filled by a thick wood, not the least vestige of a house remaining.