16 
are often driven from beneath bushes and “ porcupine-grass” 
( Triodia) by setting fire to the same and catching the prey as it 
endeavours to escape the flame. 
АП kinds of birds, even the smallest, are constantly sought 
after to be used as food; particularly do owls and hawks, that 
inhabit the hollows of gum-trees, fall an easy victim to the ever- 
hungry native. 
When the season is favourable, grubs (*ilguare ” and “iljaleti”) 
and caterpillars (“udnamarre ”) are extensively collected and 
devoured. The “ilguare” lives on the roots of species of Acacia and 
Cassia, and it is interesting to watch a native hunting for these. 
A long rod with a chisel edge at one end, and often referred to 
as yamstick (“wanna”) is forced into the ground at the side of 
the main stem of the bush and leverage applied. If the root has 
been attackéd by grubs it will readily give way to the strain, and 
the native consequently sets to work with his * wanna” and hands 
to unearth the grub. Less difficulty is experienced in finding the 
“iljaleti” (larvw of Cosssus sp.) which lives in the trunks of 
eucalypts. 
At the time of our arrival in the ranges the ground was covered 
with large green caterpillars that were collected by the natives 
in large wooden vessels (“ mika ”) carried upon the heads of the 
women. 
A “native sweet” which is eagerly sought both by young and 
old is the honey-ant (Melophorus inflatus) or “ winudtharrå ” 
of the blacks.* (Plate IV., fig. 1.) These curious creatures, noc- 
turnal in habit, live associatedly in colonies below the surface of 
the ground, usually in thickets of mulga and at the base of one 
of thesetrees. The native, on finding the exit from the ants' nest, 
traces the narrow channel downwards by working with his hand 
and stick to a depth of often many feet, at which the colony 
resides. The *honey-ant,” which it has been ascertained is ons 
of the workers specially modified, stores honey within itself at 
the expense of the gatherings of the remaining ants, to an amount 
disproportionately large when compared with its own size. To 
permit of this the abdominal portion of the ant swells, according 
to the intake of honey, until it assumes a globular form having a 
diameter of a centimetre or more. This globule of honey is en- 
closed by the integument stretched to a thin membranous skin, 
along the median line of which the separated, black, thoracic 
plates are visible. The viscera are compressed into a small space 
near the vent. The ant is in this condition practically helpless 
as far as locomotion is concerned. This phenomenal accumulation 
of honey appears to be a natural mode of storage for times of 
* Qompare Baldwin-Spencer. Horn Exped. Cent. Aust. <“ Narrative,” 
pp. 87-89. 
