BEES. 227 



(Boronia, Eriostemon) . There were some rounded 

 grains which we could not identify. 



It was interesting to note that these grains were, 

 on the whole, quite in separate masses. Occasion- 

 ally we got a few isolated triangular myrtaceous 

 grains mixed in with the elliptical grains. 



The blacks call these bees sugar-bags. It is re- 

 corded in "Across Australia," by Baldwin Spencer 

 and F. J. Gillen, Vol. II., page 467: "The where- 

 abouts of the 'sugar-bags' is determined by placing 

 the ear against likely-looking trunks or boughs, 

 when the low hum of the bees at work inside can 

 be heard, or sometimes by actually watching a bee 

 entering a small hole in the bough. During the 

 rainy season and in very cold weather the natives 

 say that the bees close the entrance to the nest with 

 mud. If, as sometimes happens, the nest is attack- 

 ed by predatory ants, a number of bees block the 

 opening with their own bodies. When once the 

 'sugar-bag' has been located it is then chopped 

 out. The comb is quite irregular in shape, varying 

 in quantity, of course, in different hives. The cells 

 are like little rounded balls, the largest about a 

 quarter of an inch in diameter, some of them con" 

 taining honey and some pollen and sticky stuff not 

 yet made into honey. The third kind is much 

 smaller and contains eggs, larvae and pupae. The 

 whole mass, except the small cells (though of course 

 many of them are included accidentally) is scooped 

 into a piece of bark. Hundreds of bees get mixed 

 up with the honey and the pollen, but the natives 

 do not mind this and eat the whole of it with relish. 

 So far as the honey is concerned it is excellent," 



