112 W. T. WINDHAM. AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES 



AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES : VARIETIES OF FOOD 



AND METHODS OF OBTAINING IT. 



By W. T. Wyndham, Boyne Island, Queensland. 



[Bead before the Royal Society of N.S.W., August 6, 1890.'] 



Notes on "Sugar Bag" 5a *and the different ways the aborigines 

 have of finding honey. — The little black native bee the Ucuinble 

 call cobbi 1 , alone, I think, inhabits the Western Waters. There 

 is another bee 2 that is found in the Eastern Falls as well as the 

 cobbi, called by the blacks in other dialects worell, which makes 

 an acid honey, and is common in the district where I am now located. 

 The large bumble bee' 3 probiccullo, bores in the dead wood, 

 particularly in the old stems of the grass tree. The cobbi is 

 found in the winter season chiefly through the habits of a large 

 sort of weasel* and a squirrel 5 that gnaw a hole in the bough 

 where the sugar bag is, so that the aborigines often detect it by 

 the marks made by these animals. 



The cobbi towards the fall of the year collects rosin 6 off the 

 Cyprus pine tree, gathering it on their hind legs in little round 

 pellets that they have manipulated with their forceps, and as they 

 crawl over the bark on the way to their hole, they leave slight 

 tracks of this rosin and pollen. The aborigines minutely look at 

 the bark of a likely tree and trace them by these indications. 

 There is also another way of tracing the bees in the winter time 

 by the excreta of the squirrels and weasels from under the trees and 

 this the green headed ant 7 is particularly industrious in collecting 

 in their nests. Aborigines go down on their knees and blow the 

 dust from the ant's nest with their mouth, picking up on the end 

 of a small straw, which they wet with their mouth, any likely look- 

 ing little pellet which they carefully squeeze between their thumb- 

 nails, and often smell. The next thing is to go up the nearest 

 tree, and trace the hive by means of the various indications before 

 described. In the summer time the hive is found by looking at 

 likely boughs towards the sun, when you can see the bee between 

 the eye of the observer and the light. The dogs of the aborigines 

 frequently find the honey in blown down timber. 



The next plan which affords by far the best sport is running 

 the bee home from a tree where it is collecting rosin. Frequently 

 three or four old men may be seen sitting down under one or more 

 trees with bags of the down of the eagle-hawk 8 and lumps of pipe 

 clay, 9 and each with a little flattened stick. One of the natives 



* The small numerals refer to list under index at the end of paper. 



