HORN EXPEDITION — NAUIfATIVIi. 71 



viifious sizes, some an inch iu tlianiffcor, along wliicli tliu eggs apjKvircd to Ijc lying 

 a.l)out iricguLariy. Each nest contains larger and smaller winged forms, smidl 

 bhick and larger brown-black wingless ones. 



The blacks gather together large quantities of the viscid leaf sheaths of the 

 porcin>ine grass {Triodia piingeiis), and after cutting it up into smull pieces, burn 

 away as much as possible of the grass itself and so obtain lumps of black resin in 

 which renniants of the leaves and leaf stalks can always be seen. These lumps nf 

 resin they use, after softening with heat, for various purposes such as that of 

 fa,st(ming Ijits of flint on to the ends of their spear throwers, the resin setting into 

 a mass as hard as stone. 



In an appendix to the Botanical report Mr. Maiden has shown that the nest 

 is built of sand particles agglutinated with resin, a coating of ferric oxide giving 

 to the wliole the colour and appearance of reddish-brown clinker. That the ants 

 do carry away the resin fi-om the leaf sheaths of the grass, both to make their 

 nests and to cement together the sand particles of which their tunnels are made, 

 cannot be doubted ; but it is rather difficult to understand how they accomplish the 

 task, as the resin on the leaf sheath is of such a nature that it feels like varnish, 

 and it would rather be thought that the ants would have stuck to the resin when 

 they touched it and would not have been able to carry it away in a condition tit to 

 use it in the way in which they do. Perhaps they have the power of smearing 

 some fluid matter over it which enables them to cai'ry away little pieces of it 

 without its adhering closely to their appendages. 



In many cases the nest was at the base of a tussock which had evidently been 

 burned . 



The blacks — so they assured me — do not make use of the resin already 

 massed together Ijy the ants to form their nests, but always get it by burning 

 the leaves of the porcupine grass for themselves. They could not tell me why 

 they did not do so, but only said that their fathers had not and they never did, 

 which IS a typical answer to the (jUestion " why " when put to a black. This was 

 at Tempe Down.s, perhaps in some other parts of the conthient they do make use of 

 the ant nest. 



Mr. Maiden has stated that they do so in certain parts of West Australia, 

 and certainly the first time you pick up a piece of the nest you are likely to jump 

 to the conclusion that it is exactly what they would do, as at iirst sight the 

 clinker-like njass resendjles the blocks of resin wdiich the blacks use for the 

 purpose. It seemed such a foregone conclusion that when the black boys told me 



