•J,ob 



lows it to the Jiole, and with the wanna soon removes the sand 

 for several yards along the burrow to the lizard's tail, by which 

 it is caught, and soon despatched by swinging it in the air and 

 knocking its head upon the ground or against the slantingly-held 

 wanna. At times wlien these lizards have long and divergent 

 galleries excavated only a little below the surface, the blacks 

 break down these burrows with their heel until they feel the 

 lizard move underneath. A more exciting piece of work than 

 digging for lizards is the excavating for the quick, little, banded 

 anteater, Myrmexohius fasciatus, which animal often makes its 

 lair over three feet below the surface, and perhaps a longer dis- 

 tance away from the entrance of the burrow. Here the wera 

 comes greatly into requisition for the removal of the soil when 

 it requires lifting as the hole is going down, because the wanna 

 is only useful for loosening or throwing the earth backward 

 when working near the surface. To secure a single pregnant 

 female ant of a wood-boring species, the ground may often have 

 to be dug several feet deep along the side of a decayed mulga- 

 tree, because these insects harbor, as a rule, near the bottom of 

 the tap-roots of the attacked trees. The much inflated abdomen 

 of these little insects is sometimes distended to the size of a small 

 marble, and contains a bright, light-yellow-colored fluid of a 

 honey-like sweetness, which is much relished by the natives, and 

 generally at once eaten when secured. Other articles of food, 

 which are almost invariably eaten as soon as they are found, are 

 the "munbau" and the " marditti," the white larvaj of wood- 

 boring insects. The first mentioned of these is the largest ; it is 

 the larva of a cossus-moth, and grows to the size of a man's finger. 

 The marditti is much smaller, and most likely under this name 

 several kinds of wood-boring larva; are included. Small birds' 

 eggs are also generally devoured at once, and so are fruits, berries, 

 and other small objects, such as the exudations of edible gum for 

 instance. 



Nothing comes amiss to the blacks that can possibly be called 

 into requisition as nourishment, but throughout the greater part 

 of the interior, as far as the Expedition went, their principal 

 flesh-food is provided by the small marsupials that harbor 

 under the triodia-tnasocks, and are commonly called " spinifex 

 wallabies" ( Largochestes hirsutusj, occurring abundantly in many 

 places in the triodia-vegion. This pungent grass aflbrds a good 

 shelter as well as food for this animal, which lives to a great 

 extent upon its stems. The blacks are very expert at killing the 

 animals with the " turtimbo," or short throwing-stick, which they 

 handle dexterously, rarely missing their aim when they throw it. 

 However, the many large porcupine-shaped tussocks of triodia 

 that cover the ground shelter the little animals well in their quick 



