HE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 129 
apricots. Noticing that his dusky visitor appeared to enjoy 
the ddinty, Dr. Livingstone asked him if he had any such 
delicious food in his own country. ‘‘ Ah!” replied the chief, 
‘“‘Did you ever taste white ants?” ‘ Never,” said Livingstone. 
“Well, if you had,” was the response, “‘ you would never have 
‘desired to taste anything better!’ Smeathman tells us that 
several African tribes eat white ants roasted, boiled, and raw; 
and then adds his personal opinion that the individuals eating 
them soon get into good condition through feasting on this 
nutritious food. All our Australian aborigines are very fond of 
white ants. Both bees, ants, and wasps have also contributed 
largely to the food supplies of our blacks. From the first of 
these, of course, honey is obtained. ‘To learn where the honey 
is, bees are hunted by sight. An insect may be caught in the 
open, smeared with iguana fat, and some birds’ feather down 
stuck upon it; it was then let loose and followed home. The 
Bugong Moth is well-known as an item of blackfellows’ diet. 
On the Bloomfield River, the pupa ofa butterfly is eaten. The 
blacks in that district know it by the name of b7-7-bz-z. Cicadas 
were regarded as providing a dainty dish by Roman epicures. 
In Australia. the Mackinley Range natives eat’ the pupm of a 
species of cicada. ; 
Meptcins.—Scorpions, spiders, millepedes, cockchafers, lady- 
birds, earwigs, flies and ticks have been largely used as medicine. 
In illustration of this side of the question, the lecturer gave a 
number of quaint and interesting examples, the enumeration of 
which space alone forbids. 
OBSERVATIONS ON FROGS. 
(By Mr. EH. Olunies Ross.) 
On the 5th April, while at Mosman Bay, my attention was 
directed to two small frogs that were to me entirely new, and 
having learned where these had been found, I went thither ona 
collecting trip. There are several things one should remember 
when preparing an outfit for frog-catching. The first care 
should be to see that one’s jars have neither too little nor too 
much water; frogs kept in a dry or absorbent receptacle die 
from lack of moisture, whilst those kept in water drown. One 
should also take sufficient jars to permit of separating large 
from small specimens. An almost indispensable part of. the 
outfit is a transformed butterfly net. The net part should be 
made of strong mosquito net, and the wire ring be not more ~ 
than.a foot in diameter. Arrived at the pools, I made as my 
first capture a tadpole in the third stage of growth. A tadpole 
first develops his hind legs, and even in the smallest specimens 
I have been able to see rudiments of these, though still’con- 
tained in the transparent outer mass that surrounds the core 
of the tail; The fore limbs are not developed for some 
